Outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has enjoyed legal immunity for the past five years, could soon be forced to explain himself to magistrates in three separate funding scandals that have dogged his time in power. France’s constitution says a president cannot be required to testify or be investigated or prosecuted until a month after leaving office, a privilege that will end in mid-June for Sarkozy, who hands over to election winner Francois Hollande on May 15. That frees the way for Sarkozy to be summoned for questioning by judicial investigators looking into murky affairs including a 1990s submarine sale to Pakistan and relations between Sarkozy, his party and France’s wealthiest woman.
