FORMER French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained and was reportedly being questioned by financial investigators yesterday in a corruption probe. A judicial official said Sarkozy was in custody in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

    French media reported Sarkozy is being questioned in an investigation linked to financing for his 2007 presidential campaign. The case centers around whether Sarkozy and his lawyer were kept informed of insider information on the investigation by a friendly magistrate.

    Sarkozy and his lawyer have denied wrongdoing. His lawyer, Thierry Herzog, is also being held for questioning, according to French news reports.

    Investigators are basing suspicions at least in part on tapped phone conversations that Sarkozy has denounced and compared to actions by the secret police in the old East Germany.

    Former French President Jacques Chirac was convicted in a corruption investigation in 2011, after he left office, but when he was questioned in the case he was not held in police custody.(SD-Agencies)