A French judge on Tuesday charged a prosecutor close to President Nicolas Sarkozy with having illegally collected data on a journalist in the latest twist in a top-level spying and corruption scandal.

"/> A French judge on Tuesday charged a prosecutor close to President Nicolas Sarkozy with having illegally collected data on a journalist in the latest twist in a top-level spying and corruption scandal.

" />
SHARE
COPY LINK

NICOLAS

Sarkozy ally charged in media spying scandal

A French judge on Tuesday charged a prosecutor close to President Nicolas Sarkozy with having illegally collected data on a journalist in the latest twist in a top-level spying and corruption scandal.

Nanterre prosecutor Philippe Courroye said in a statement he had been charged by a Paris judge with “illegally collecting data of a personal nature by fraudulent means” and “violating the confidentiality of sources”.

Courroye said he “vigorously denies” the accusations and had appealed the charges.

Under French law, preliminary charges are brought to allow magistrates to continue investigations before possibly sending a case to trial.

The case centres on an alleged police investigation, ordered at the highest level, to identify a leak feeding information to a journalist with French newspaper Le Monde.

Police allegedly obtained the journalist’s mobile telephone logs in 2010 in order to identify the source in a complex illegal political financing scandal linked to L’Oréal heiress and billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.

The scandal began as a dispute between the heiress and her daughter but soon evolved into allegations that Bettencourt had been handing bundles of cash to politicians, including Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign manager.

Courroye, who French media have reported is a friend of Sarkozy, is the latest in a series of the president’s allies charged in the scandal.

The head of France’s DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, was charged in the case in October.


Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

NICOLAS

Sweden’s baby prince gets visit from Santa

Sweden's youngest member of the royal family has wished everyone a happy Christmas in a message published on social media by his mother, Princess Madeleine, who lives in London.

Sweden's baby prince gets visit from Santa
Princess Madeleine and Nicolas earlier this year. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

“Nicolas is wishing everyone Happy Holidays,” read the message, accompanied by a rare picture of the baby prince looking happy and comfortable perched on Santa's lap.

Just two hours after it was published on the Princess' official Facebook page it had been shared hundreds of times and had received almost 17,000 likes.

The six-month-old royal was born just two days after his uncle Prince Carl Philip's wedding to Princess Sofia in June this year.

 

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

Nicolas is wishing everyone Happy Holidays! (Photo Credit: Boggio Studios)

Posted by Princess Madeleine of Sweden on Tuesday, 22 December 2015

Madeleine, 33, her financier husband Chris O'Neill, 41, and their other child, one-year-old Princess Leonore, relocated to London earlier this year.

IN PICTURES: Princess Leonore through the years

The couple received a popularity boost earlier in December after they appeared together on 'Skavlan' – Sweden's most-watched talkshow – where they talked about their life in the UK.

2.5 million viewers watched the show, in a country just shy of 10 million citizens.

Madeleine, who has kept a lower profile than her siblings, has previously been criticized for not engaging with the media in the past and one radio editor made headlines in February when he wrote that “waving and smiling is not enough”.

Royal Christmas greetings are fast becoming an annual tradition in Sweden. Just last week Nicolas' older cousin Princess Estelle sent adorable holiday greetings in a video posted online.