Probe into claim Sarkozy got funds from Gaddafi

France has opened a judicial investigation into allegations former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election bid won illicit funds from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The inquiry adds to the legal issues plaguing Sarkozy, who some see making a comeback bid in 2017 after losing office last year. The defeat cost him the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed during five years as head of state.

An official at the prosecutor’s office said an inquiry had been opened after allegations made by a Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, himself under investigation in a separate affair of arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s.