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French website ordered to remove secret Sarkozy tapes

Judges also sentenced former top aide Patrick Buisson to pay damages for making recordings, some of which involved Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

A French court has ordered a news website to remove the recordings of secretly taped conversations of Nicolas Sarkozy during his time as president, reports the BBC.

Judges also sentenced a former aide, Patrick Buisson, to pay damages for making the recordings, some of which involved Mr Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni.

The couple took legal action after the audio appeared on Atlantico's website.

The site said it already taken down files featuring Ms Bruni because she was not a politician.

The so-called Sarkoleaks scandal, which broke in early March, caused turmoil in Mr Sarkozy's party, the opposition centre-right UMP.

Although embarrassing, the transcripts were mostly harmless and contained no political bombshells.

On Friday, the court in Paris ordered Atlantico to immediately remove the files or face daily fines.

It also ordered Mr Buisson, 64, to pay 10,000 euros (£8,350: $13,900) in damages to the former president and his wife. Lawyers for the couple welcomed the ruling.

Read more of this report from the BBC.