Nicolas Sarkozy will stand trial over campaign finance fraud

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been ordered to stand trial in an inquiry into alleged campaign finance fraud during his failed 2012 re-election bid, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Nicholas Sarkozy (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Mr Sarkozy and 13 other “protagonists” will go to court on the order of a magistrate to answer allegations that his presidential campaign spent well above the legal ceiling of 22.5 million euro (£19.4 million) and tried to cover it up fraudulently, the office said.

The claims centre on whether the 61-year-old politician was aware of alleged false billing and fraud linked to PR company Bygmalion, where some executives have acknowledged false accounting.

Mr Sarkozy denies any wrongdoing and his camp said it will appeal against the decision.

The news may further erode public trust in politics as Mr Sarkozy’s former number two, Francois Fillon, their party’s candidate in this spring’s presidential election, fights for his political life over an investigation into whether well-paid political jobs he gave his wife, son and daughter were fake.

Conservative politicians have been summoned for a meeting at Mr Fillon’s headquarters to form a united front around the ex-prime minister ahead of the April-May elections.

In 2011, former president Jacques Chirac was given a two-year suspended jail sentence in a scandal over phoney jobs.