Sarkozy detained in French corruption probe

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been held for questioning over suspicions that he received leaked details of an inquiry into alleged irregularities in his 2007 election campaign

A judicial official said Tuesday that Sarkozy is in custody in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. It is the first time that a former head of state has been detained in such a manner in French history.

Anti-corruption investigators can hold Sarkozy, 59, for questioning for up to 24 hours, with a possible extension of an additional day.

The French politician turned himself in just a day after investigators detained his lawyer Thierry Herzog and two magistrates.

Officials allege Sarkozy sought to obtain inside information from one of the magistrates about the progress of another probe and that he was tipped off that his mobile phone had been tapped by judges looking into the alleged financing of his 2007 election campaign by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy and his lawyer have denied wrongdoing.

The development represents the latest blow to Sarkozy's hopes of a political comeback following his 2012 election defeat by Francois Hollande and could scupper any plans to run again for the top office in 2017.

Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Sarkozy was "subject to justice like everyone else."

"Justice authorities are investigating and have to go all the way," he told i>Tele television.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy’s allies rushed to his support.

"Never has any former president been the victim of such treatment, such an outburst of hatred," Christian Estrosi, the mayor of the southern city of Nice and a close Sarkozy ally, said via his Twitter account.

The case is one of six lawsuits involving Sarkozy either directly or indirectly, including more recent allegations of irregularities in his unsuccessful 2012 election campaign.

One cloud was lifted off Sarkozy's future last October when a court dropped inquiries into whether he had exploited the mental frailty of France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, to fund that campaign.

But as investigators used phone-taps to examine separate allegations relating to Gaddafi, they began to suspect he had kept tabs on the Bettencourt case through a network of informants.

Those suspicions finally prompted the formal launching of yet another investigation into alleged influence peddling in February. Sarkozy has likened the magistrates behind the phone tapping to the "Stasi" police of former Communist East Germany.

Sarkozy retired after being defeated by Hollande, but has continued to snipe both at the Socialist president and rivals inside his own conservative camp with messages carefully placed in local media by his political entourage.

Asked about his future at a closed-door event at France's parliament last week, Sarkozy said he was still "in a period of reflection" but indicated he would make up his mind in coming months whether to seek the 2017 ticket of his UMP party.

Yet a growing number of voices in the UMP have been arguing he is too much of a liability to run for them as president.

Those calls grew louder last week as a separate funding scandal over his 2012 election campaign escalated. The latest development will only reinforce the belief that the former French president has too much legal baggage to run again.

Al Jazeera and wire services