Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy | Guillame Souvant/AFP via Getty Images Nicolas Sarkozy charged with corruption Ex-French president faces allegations that part of his victorious 2007 campaign was illegally financed by Libya’s then-government.

Nicolas Sarkozy was on Wednesday evening charged with corruption, illegal campaign financing and receiving Libyan public funds, according to local media.

The former French president was taken into police custody on Tuesday to be questioned about allegations that part of his victorious 2007 campaign was illegally financed by Libya’s then-government.

Sarkozy has always denied the allegations, saying there is a lack of credible evidence and alleging that the Libyans now denouncing him were motivated by revenge after he helped lead the 2011 Western intervention in Libya that deposed then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The allegations have plagued Sarkozy ever since 2012, when the news website Mediapart published a document alleged to have come from the former head of the Libyan secret services, promising Sarkozy some €50 million for his campaign.

In 2016, French-Lebanese businessman and arms broker Ziad Takieddine said in several interviews that he had once personally brought €5 million in cash to Sarkozy, who was then campaigning for president as interior minister. Takieddine also named Claude Guéant, who had been Sarkozy’s chief of staff and later became interior minister.

Takieddine’s allegations matched what Libya’s head of military intelligence under Gaddafi had told the country’s new authorities.

The allegations of Libyan money financing his campaign never surfaced during Sarkozy’s presidency. As president, he would have been covered by immunity from prosecution for the length of his term.