Bygmalion gate: Former French President Sarkozy in court

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy is being charged with illegal campaign financing last Thursday over "excessive election expenses as a candidate", said the public prosecutor's office in Paris. The former President was invited for questioning by the judge since the morning within the framework of Bygmalion gate and 2012 campaign funding.

Bygmalion investigation, named after the company that were organizing his meetings, is related to a much larger false invoices system that concealed exceeding ceiling limits usually set at 22.5 million (more than 2 crore) euros ahead of presidential elections. These invoices main object may have been to blame former French right-wing UMP, now called Les Republicains, for 18.5 million (less than 2 crore) euros expenses which should have been part of the campaign account.

Many Bygmalion officials, including his accountant and Jérôme Lavrilleux from UMP, admitted the existence of this fraud, but none of them accused Nicolas Sarkozy of making the call nor being aware of it.

Bygmalion is run by friends of Jean-Francois Cope, who led the UMP party for a short time between Mr Sarkozy's separate tenures. He stood down in 2014 after the allegations were made public.

Mr Cope, who has been declared to be a witness in the case, also denies any knowledge of the false invoices.