A corruption scandal surrounding former French president Nicolas Sarkozy deepened further on Saturday with fresh leaks of telephone conversations purporting to show he offered to get a judge a plum job in return for favours, reports Channel News Asia.
Sarkozy, who was charged* two weeks ago with corruption and influence peddling in a case related to his campaign to win the presidency in 2007, claims he is the victim of a "grotesque" set-up. He accuses his enemies of using the justice system to undermine a possible political comeback.
But according to extracts from tapped calls published by the French daily Le Monde on Saturday, the ex-president appeared to lobby for a job for the judge in Monaco in return for his help on one of six bribery and funding scandals in which Sarkozy is embroiled.
In intercepted mobile phone calls with his long-time lawyer Thierry Herzog -- who also faces charges* -- Sarkozy is alleged to have said, "I will help him (the judge)... I will get him set up," adding, "Call him today and tell him I will sort it out. I am going to Monaco and I will see the prince (Albert)."
The conversations are alleged to have taken place in February this year on a mobile phone the 59-year-old politician bought using a false name.
Sarkozy's lawyer Pierre Haik declined to comment to AFP on the new leaks, the latest in a series of damaging revelations to have hit Sarkozy since he left power. The senior magistrate at the centre of the case, Gilbert Azibert, has been charged* with illegally passing on information about the long-running political funding scandal involving the billionaire L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
Azibert did not get the position in Monaco, a principality on the Riviera which is largely dependent on France, and has applied to retire.
Read more of this AFP report published by Channel News Asia.
Read Mediapart's coverage of the case here and here.
* Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-langauge media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being 'charged'. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial. In the current case Nicolas Sarkozy has been 'placed under investigation'.