Judge to question Sarkozy over ‘£640,000 cash bribe’

NICOLAS Sarkozy is to be questioned in court this week over allegations that he accepted £640,000 in cash from France’s richest woman.

Former president Mr Sarkozy, 57, will be asked by Judge Jean-Michel Gentil about his relationship with L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt after he was alleged to have accepted brown envelopes full of cash to help fund his 2007 election campaign in return for tax breaks when he came to office.

A number of former employees of Mrs Bettencourt have told the judge, sitting in Bordeaux, that Mr Sarkozy turned up at her house in the Paris suburb of Neuilly to pick up money.

Mr Sarkozy, who has been unemployed since May, denies any wrong-doing. He is facing a number of other corruption inquiries, including claims that he accepted millions from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Mr Sarkozy can be questioned as a witness or a suspect, or placed under formal investigation — one step short of a charge — for breaking electoral law. If prosecuted and found guilty, he would face jail.