The French President Nicolas Sarkozy (Photo: Reuters)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday rejected as "grotesque" claims by former Libyan premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi that Muammar Gaddafi 's regime funded his 2007 election campaign.
Mahmudi's accusation came after the French news website Mediapart published a document on Saturday which it said showed Libya's financing of Sarkozy's campaign.
Sarkozy's spokeswoman in his current election campaign, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, in a statement dismissed Mahmudi's claim.
"How can one for one second give credit to the declarations of a Gaddafi regime former accomplice when they are, by chance, directed against the person who led the international coalition that came to the help of the Libyan people?" she asked.
Sarkozy himself on Thursday angrily dismissed Mediapart's document as a forgery timed to destabilise his re-election campaign and is taking legal action against the website.
Mediapart had posted what it said was a 2006 document signed by former Libyan intelligence chief Mussa Kussa referring to an "agreement in principle to support the 2007 campaign for the candidate for the presidential elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, for a sum equivalent to 50 million euros."
Kussa, who is in exile in Doha, has dismissed the document as a fake.
Short link: