Judges tapped ex-President Sarkozy`s phones

Paris: Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of attempting to pervert the court of justice on the basis of phone taps ordered by judges investigating his links with Muammar Gaddafi, it emerged on Friday. The revelation was the latest dramatic development in the labyrinthine web of corruption cases threatening to ensnare the former French president and destroy his chances of a political comeback. Judges started tapping Sarkozy`s phones last year after opening a formal investigation into allegations that the late former Libyan dictator Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign, according to respected daily Le Monde. Judicial sources confirmed to AFP that a recorded call between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog was the basis for a new investigation opened last week into a suspected attempt to obtain, via a friendly judge, inside information about ongoing -- and top secret -- proceedings before one of France`s highest courts. The proceedings arise from another election financing scandal in which Sarkozy was embroiled and could have a profound influence on the outcome of yet another corruption case, centred on a 400-million-euro state payout to disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie. Herzog said today that Sarkozy "is probably still being tapped," and denounced what he said was a politically motivated plot against his client. "There was no attempt to pervert the course of justice and in due course this monstrous violation will be shown to have been a political affair," the lawyer told AFP. An investigation into allegations that Sarkozy accepted millions of euros from Gaddafi was opened in April 2013 on the basis of claims made by one of the dictator`s sons, his interpreter and the man who allegedly delivered the cash. According to Le Monde, the judges in charge of the Libya probe quickly decided they would be justified in tapping the phones of Sarkozy and two of his former ministers, Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux.