Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy told a French court today that he had never engaged in corruption and that he was the victim of lies.
Mr Sarkozy is on trial for charges of trying to bribe a judge and influence-peddling, among several charges that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career.
Taking to the witness stand for the first time, a defiant Mr Sarkozy accused prosecutors of conducting a witch-hunt, using excessive means to snoop on his affairs and withholding evidence.
Mr Sarkozy told the court: "Permit me to say solemnly ... that I have never committed the slightest act of corruption. Never. Never abused my influence, alleged or real."
Prosecutors say Mr Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012, offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into accusations that the former president had accepted illegal payments from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 election campaign.
This came to light, they say, while they were wiretapping conversations between Mr Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after Mr Sarkozy left office in relation to an investigation into alleged Libyan financing of that 2007 campaign.
Mr Sarkozy told the court, as he has previously acknowledged, that Mr Herzog had indeed asked him to give the judge a "helping hand". If he had decided to do so, he continued, it would have been as a favour for his lawyer and close friend, and not in exchange for information from Mr Azibert.
"My life has been giving people a helping hand because I spent 40 years in politics," he told the court.
Mr Herzog and Mr Azibert are both on trial with Sarkozy, charged with corruption and influence-peddling. They are also accused of "violating professional confidentiality". All three face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines if convicted.
"I've never lied. But there have been lies (by others) throughout this affair," Mr Sarkozy added.
"What right do they have to drag me through the mud like this for six years. Is there no rule of law?"
