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Indicted Sarkozy vows to clear his name, retires from politics

PARIS, March 22 (KUNA) -- Indicted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday vowed to clear his name no matter how long it takes but he also said that he was retiring from political life.
The former French leader from 2007-2012 was formally indicted on Wednesday on three charges of corruption, including having received and hidden millions of Euros from deceased Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi to finance his presidential campaign. He was also charged with "illegal campaign financing" and "passive corruption." Sarkozy told "TF1" television that there was a plot by the "Gaddafi gang" to bring him down because he took a leading role in the intervention of 2011 in Libya that resulted in the death of the Libyan leader and the fall of his regime.
He claimed that the accusations of illicit Libyan financing of his campaign only emerged after France sought a UN Security Council mandate to intervene in Libya and he accused the Gaddafi family of a plot against him, calling them "criminals and delinquents." He vowed to fight the corruption charges and clear his name even if it takes "one, two or ten years" and he promised to "smash this (Gaddafi) group and restore (his) honour".
But there are other witnesses outside of the Gaddafi family who have testified that large amounts of cash were sent from Libya to Sarkozy's campaign and one witness, arms dealer and intermediary Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese, admitted to bringing in around Euros 5 million in cash in three trips to give to Sarkozy's Office Director and later Interior Minister Claude Gueant, and even once to Sarkozy himself.
Gueant is also being charged for financial misdoings and investigators are looking into transactions and cash use by him.
Allegations, based on a disputed Libyan document, indicate that Gaddafi promised Sarkozy EUR 50 million (USD 61 million) in financing for his 2007 presidential campaign.
The former President vehemently denied these claims and labelled Takeiddine a criminal "who has served prison time" and he declared the Libyan document is "a fake".
Sarkozy said there was no material proof again him and his battle to disprove the charges was not for him or his career because "politics is finished." But he said the fight now was for France and the French whose confidence, he said, he "had never betrayed." (end) jk.sd