Former France president Sarkozy charged over Libyan campaign financing
'This national council will be my last one as president of Les Republicains,' Sarkozy told a party meeting, calling for a fair contest and no acrimony between the potential nominees.
Former Frenchpresident NicolasSarkozy has been charged overfinancing his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, according toprosecutors.
The move made Sarkozy, who ruled from 2007 to 2012 and is still an influential behind-the-scenes player on the political right, the target of an inquiry into alleged cash handovers and wire transfers between Tripoli and Paris in the months before he won power.
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It marked a dramatic acceleration in an inquiry that had largely faded in the news since it was opened five years ago, shortly after the 63-year-old left office.
Sarkozy, who has persistently denied claims that he accepted millions of euros from Gaddafi, some of it delivered in cash-stuffed suitcases, hadvowed to clear his name, even if it takes years.
"We have the right to appeal. I will appeal these judicial restrictions," his lawyer Thierry Herzog told RTL radio, saying he believed the measures were aimed at humiliating the rightwinger.
After two days of questioning in police custody over allegations that first surfaced during a French-led intervention in Libya in 2011, Sarkozy was charged with corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of Libyan public money.
Judges had barred Sarkozy from travelling to four countries including Libya and forbade him from talking to nine other people caught up in the five-year investigation, including two former ministers.
Among those he is banned from meeting are former interior minister Claude Gueant -- who is suspected of receiving some of the cash -- and former Brice Hortefeux, a close friend who held several senior posts in Sarkozy's administration.
Sarkozy hadbeen released from police custody but put under judicial supervision.In French legal jargon, he was officially "placed under investigation" - a step judicial investigators can take if they have serious grounds for suspecting an offence. Being placed under investigation often but not always leads to trial.
It was the second major investigation for Sarkozy, who also faced charges of illicit campaign spending overruns during his failed re-election bid in 2012.
The latest case concerns accusations by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who says he helped funnel 5 million euros ($6 million) from Gaddafi's intelligence chief to Sarkozy's campaign chief ahead of the 2007 election.