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Nicolas Sarkozy

Paris — France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy hit back after being charged with corruption, denying he broke the law and suggesting his political enemies were interfering with the French justice system.“I have never committed any act contrary to the values of the republic or the rule of law,” Sarkozy said on Wednesday after he was charged on three corruption-related counts that threaten to torpedo his hopes of a political comeback.

“I have never betrayed the confidence” of the French people, he said in a televised interview — his first major appearance since he lost the 2012 presidential election to Francois Hollande.

Sarkozy decried what he called “political interference” in the case – a suggestion that opponents like the ruling Socialists were behind his legal woes. —  AFP