Paris: The Court of Appeals in Paris decided on Thursday that recordings from a secret wiretap on French former president Nicolas Sarkozy would be allowed as evidence in his ongoing corruption indictment, Efe news agency reported.
Sarkozy allegedly bribed a judge in exchange for privileged information in a case of questionable campaign financing for his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party from 2007 to 2012, in which he was peripherally implicated.
The court rejected all attempts to invalidate the recorded conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, from early 2014, one of the former president`s lawyers said.
Sarkozy will now appeal to the Supreme Court, which will freeze the case for several months.
After being held in custody for 15 hours, an unprecedented arrest of a French ex-president, Sarkozy was accused of corruption, peddling and abetting the violation of professional secrecy in July last year.
Sarkozy and Herzog tried to bribe Judge Gilbert Azibert with a prestigious position in Monaco in exchange for confidential information.
The scandal, which was described as "influence peddling" in the police report, poses a significant legal threat to Sarkozy, who has eyes on a presidential bid in the 2017 elections.
