Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was unexpectedly hauled back before a judge Thursday over claims he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from France's richest woman to illegally finance his 2007 election campaign, reports France 24.
Judicial sources told AFP Sarkozy had been summoned for a face-to-face encounter with Pascal Bonnefoy, the former butler of L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Jean-Michel Gentil, the judge in charge of the case, was hoping the confrontation would allow him to establish how many times Sarkozy visited Bettencourt during his successful campaign.
Sarkozy, 58, has always maintained that he visited Bettencourt's residence only once during the campaign, contrary to testimony from several members of the multi-millionaire's staff.
Gentil and two other examining magistrates spent 12 hours interrogating Sarkozy in November. They decided not to formally charge him but to continue investigating the allegations against him.
Bettencourt is now 90 and has been in poor health since 2006. Sarkozy, it is alleged, obtained significant amounts of money from her, simultaneously breaching electoral spending limits and taking advantage of a person weakened by ill health.
Bettencourt's former accountant, Claire Thibout, told police in 2010 that she had handed envelopes stuffed with cash to Bettencourt's right-hand man, Patrice de Maistre, on the understanding it was to be passed on to Sarkozy's campaign treasurer, Eric Woerth.
Read more of this report from France 24.
Read Mediapart's coverage of the Bettencourt Affair here.