Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will appear before investigating magistrates on Thursday and could be indicted in a probe into illegal campaign financing, judicial sources said Tuesday. Sarkozy will appear before a judge in Bordeaux investigating alleged illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. Newspaper reports had suggested Sarkozy may appear as a witness but judicial sources told AFP Tuesday that he may be indicted. Investigators are probing whether withdrawals of hundreds of thousands of euros from Swiss bank accounts were made to provide funds to finance Sarkozy’s election campaign. Sarkozy, who lost May’s presidential election to Socialist Francois Hollande, has denied a series of allegations of illegal campaign financing.
