Nicolas Sarkozy Denies Gaddafi Campaign Contributions

* Website says Gaddafi gave 50 million euros to campaign

* Gaddafi's son made similar accusation last year

* President says Saif al-Islam known for talking nonsense

PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) - France's Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday angrily denied receiving money from deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his first presidential run in 2007, as one news website reported earlier in the day.

Website Mediapart said that the Libyan regime gave 50 million euros ($65.70 million) to Sarkozy's campaign, citing a document being used to investigate a 2002 bombing in the Pakistani city of Karachi, which killed 11 French citizens.

The report comes just six weeks before the first round of the presidential election on April 22.

"If he (Gaddafi) had financed it, then I haven't been very grateful," Sarkozy said when a journalist asked about the report on TF1 television.

In March 2011, as France and Britain spearheaded air strikes against Libya, Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam told Euronews TV that Libya had financed Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign, which the president's office also denied at the time.

Sarkozy lashed out at the journalist who asked him about the report and al-Islam's claim, accusing her of sympathising with the younger Gaddafi, who is being held by a Libyan militia.

"I am sorry for you that you are the spokeswoman for Gaddafi's son," Sarkozy said, visibly angered by the question.

"Gaddafi, who is known for talking nonsense, even said that there were cheques. Well then the son should just go ahead and produce them then," he said.

Earlier on Monday Sarkozy's campaign spokeswoman, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, also denied there was anything behind the report, saying that allegations had been repeatedly made but no proof had emerged.

A spokesman for Socialist party challenger Francois Hollande refused to comment on the report beyond pointing out that Gaddafi had visited Paris after the 2007 election.

"Anyone could have been legitimately surprised by how Gaddafi was received by the current government until not that long ago," said Bernard Cazeneuve.

The spokesman added that if Hollande won the election he would lift state secrecy rules regarding the Karachi bombing. French magistrates are examining whether the attack was a reprisal against France's decision to stop commissions on arms sales in Pakistan, and if there was any link to campaign funding during another French election, back in 1995.

Mediapart, staffed by a number of veteran French newspaper and news agency journalists, gained prominence in 2010 when it broke news of a major political funding scandal around Sarkozy's UMP party and L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. ($1 = 0.7610 euros) (Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Thierry Leveque; Editing by Brian Love)

Comments

[bunty4321r]

05:36 AM on 03/13/2012

Who would better the fact than Gadhafi's son, you have dozens of allegation like this. Mr. Sarkozy you had already done the damage to yourself while in office as power drunken do.

Now beg pardon for all the misdeeds you did or else public will make your life miserable the day you leave your office.

Take my words as an advice from a friend. People learns from history but these so called politicians in fact power drunkards become the government heads of the country without taking lesson like that Assassin Pm of Israel.

[Dick Stone]

04:41 AM on 03/13/2012

Sarkozy and the French have always, and will always be a much greater threat to the US than Gaddafi ever dreamed of. The French got us into Vietnam, a war in which we should never have been involved in. The French have been masters at manipulation and continue their colonial mentality. I would have chosen Gaddafi as my leader over the ilk of someone like Sarkozy any day.

[Romains]

11:00 AM on 03/16/2012

Laughable.
France left Indochina in 1954.
Nobody forced the US into anything.
The U.S murdered 3.5 million people in South East Asia. That was the French too ?

[pseudulus]

04:12 AM on 03/13/2012

Watch this story closely, don't get fooled by all the 'denials'.

[Jamespad]

02:38 AM on 03/13/2012

Saif Gaddafi was stating that Sarkozy had indeed received hefty contributions from Libya while NATO was carrying on its horriic inhumane "humanitarian intervention" And we know that politicans never lie when in a tight place..e.g. Bill stating nothing transpired with Monica.

[The Mighty Cynic]

01:48 AM on 03/13/2012

YOU DID IT PETIT NAPOLEON YOU DID IT ! ADMIT IT!

SURRENDER!!!

[Romains]

11:01 AM on 03/16/2012

Sarkozy had Libya bombed and Qaddafi killed.
Some surrender...

[Abraxas79]

11:57 PM on 03/12/2012

This Sarkozy is such a crook he is running for presidency to keep out of jail !

[Dick Stone]

04:44 AM on 03/13/2012

Big time crook, and he was the lead manipulater to get the US to bomb Libya and have a regime change, not because Gaddafi was a threat to anyone, but that he would no longer play ball by their rules, where they got the oil for 1/4 of market value. The US needs to learn a vital lesson, never trust the French, they will beat the drums, and we will wind up doing the fighting just as we did in Vietnam.

[Romains]

11:04 AM on 03/16/2012

France left Indochina in 1954.
The U.S got involved and stayed in the newly formed country of Vietnam all by its lonesome. The French were opposed to the war in Vietnam. Read De Gaulle's 1966 Phnom Penh speech.
I'm French. Stop insulting us.
Thank you.

[Monster Mash]

11:28 PM on 03/12/2012

This is kind of funny. Funny in a very hypocritical politician kind of way. His stock in France is already going down. The only thing he can do is talk about immigration and how women with niqabs are going to start attacking everyone.

[AlfredE69]

10:45 PM on 03/12/2012

Oh come on Nick I know you have the money!

[Thalin Lea]

09:55 PM on 03/12/2012

now he is playing at what ? disgusting !

[Staxx]

09:10 PM on 03/12/2012

It's not war when the other guy doesn't fight back.

[season555]

09:01 PM on 03/12/2012

Wait a Muslim (though in name only)'s money is good but Muslim women swimming during women only hour bad!?

[grizzly bear55]

08:57 PM on 03/12/2012

Looks like Sarko will be flushed and will be a one termer.

[ladameennoir]

08:19 PM on 03/12/2012

At least he presided over the first French military victory since 1918.

[Romains]

11:09 AM on 03/16/2012

If only France was a continent sized country protected by 2 oceans and with a military budget higher than the rest of the world combined...

[JohnMavis41]

07:59 PM on 03/12/2012

Sarkozy background looks photoshopped -- original was probably blood-red

[banderson2]

07:37 PM on 03/12/2012

Of course Gaddafi funded a lot of people in the west. He just didn't think they would stab him in the back the way they did.