Former French interior minister detained after probe into Sarkozy campaign financing

Former French interior minister, Claude Guéant has been taken into custody by French police investigating allegations that Muammar Gaddafi had financed former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign.

Gueant was arrested on Friday as part of a probe into the alleged financing by Muammar Gaddafi's Libya of Sarkozy's election campaign.

Investigators had discovered a €500,000 transfer into Gueant's bank account during a raid in February 2013. Gueant, who for many years was Sarkozy's right-hand man, had claimed that the money came from the sale of two 17th-century Flemish paintings to a Malaysian lawyer.

Experts challenged this claim,  however, saying the highest price ever fetched at an auction by a painting by the artist, Andries van Eertvelt, had been €125,000.

Accusations that Sarkozy's successful 2007 campaign was financed by Gaddafi's Libya first saw light following the first round of voting in the 2012 election, when a French website had published a document outlining an arrangement for €50 million in campaign funding. Sarkozy maintains that the document was forged.