Post date: Jul 03, 2012 4:19:50 PM
French police search the home and offices of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of a judicial inquiry involving France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 3, 2012) (REUTERS) - Police raided the home and offices of French former president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday (July 3) as part of a judicial inquiry into financial relations between his political camp and the richest woman in France, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, said in a statement that the raids a day after his client had left for Canada on holiday would prove futile and that he had already supplied information to investigators which debunked suspicions of secret meetings with Bettencourt.
Sarkozy, elected in May 2007 and unseated last May, enjoyed immunity from judicial pursuit while in office but that cover expired in mid-June.
The Bettencourt probe centres on financial relations between Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party and the billionaire heiress of the L'Oreal cosmetics empire. In one strand, investigators are trying to establish whether Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign in particular was funded illicitly.