Investigators end questioning Sarkozy on suspected campaign funds: TV

PARIS, March 21 (Xinhua) -- French financial investigators ended on Wednesday questioning of former president Nicolas Sarkozy on suspected funds of Libyan origin, local news channel BFMTV reported.

Magistrates were considering whether to launch formal investigation into the allegations, it added.

Placed in police custody on Tuesday, Sarkozy who served as president of France from 2007 to 2012, appeared on early Wednesday before judicial investigators specialized in corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in the Nanterre commune near Paris.

He was queried over funds he received from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.

A judicial inquiry was opened in as early as April 2013 into the suspected irregularities over the former president's campaign funding after investigative online journal Mediapart unveiled that Libya had offered money to finance his campaign.

In 2016, French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine revealed to Mediapart that he delivered three suitcases containing five million euros (6.17 million U.S. dollars) in cash, from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to Sarkozy, as well as to Sarkozy's former chief of staff and campaign director Claude Gueant between 2006 and 2007.

Takieddine said he had given a written deposition to judges on Nov. 12, 2016, detailing the cash handovers and his meetings with them.

Sarkozy, 63, has repeatedly rejected allegations. Enditem