PARIS (AFP) ― Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy broke his silence Thursday over corruption allegations threatening his chances of a political comeback, comparing his country to a dictatorship as he angrily fought back against a phone-tap scandal.
The 59-year-old has found himself at the heart of an increasingly tangled Web of scandals, culminating with allegations in the press this month that he attempted to pervert the course of justice ― information reportedly gleaned from excerpts of tapped phone conversations with his lawyer.
Until now, he had remained firmly silent and the publication this week of more detailed extracts of the chats was seen by many as a nail in the coffin of any ambitions he harbored of making a comeback in 2017 presidential elections.
“I think it is now my duty to break this silence. If I do this, it is because the sacred principles of our Republic are trampled on with unheard of violence and with an unprecedented absence of qualms,” Sarkozy wrote in French daily Le Figaro.
In an impassioned letter “to the French,” he compared having his phones tapped to dictatorial methods, slammed the leaks as politically motivated, rejected several corruption cases against him and denied any desire to return to politics.
“Who handed over these documents when no lawyer has access to the procedure? The only people who hold (the documents) are judges or policemen ... Are they above laws and judicial secrecy?” he asked of the phone tap leaks to daily Le Monde and news website Mediapart.
He also threw doubt on claims by the justice and interior ministers that they did not know about the phone taps. “Who are we kidding?”
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
