Sarkozy 'charged with taking advantage of elderly heiress'

FRANCE: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Thursday charged with taking advantage of the elderly L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, his lawyer told AFP, adding that he would immediately appeal.

The move came after Sarkozy was unexpectedly summoned for a face-to-face encounter with staff members of Bettencourt over claims he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from the world's richest woman to illegally finance his 2007 election campaign.

Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog lambasted the decision as "legally incoherent and unfair". He said he would immediately appeal and ask that the arraignment be dropped.

Overall 17 people have so far been charged in the case. Judicial officials earlier told AFP Sarkozy had been summoned for an encounter with Bettencourt's former butler Pascal Bonnefoy.

Jean-Michel Gentil, the Bordeaux-based 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.

AFP