SARKOZY....QADDAFI ?

Moammar Qaddafi's regime funded French President Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign, lawyers for former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said Thursday, quoting their client.

"Moamer Qaddafi, his regime and the officials who worked with him financed Sarkozy's election campaign in 2007," lawyer Bechir Essed told reporters in Tunis, where Mahmudi is detained, mentioning the sum of some 50 million euros ($65 million).

According to Essed, the deal was concluded by former Libyan intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the instructions of Qaddafi and that "documents proving the transaction exist."

Another lawyer for Mahmudi, who is facing two demands for extradition to Tripoli, confirmed the claim, adding that his client believes Sarkozy is behind his detention in Tunisia.

"My arrest and my detention in Tunisia were instigated by the French president so that the details of the financing of his 2007 campaign are not revealed," Mahmudi said, according to his lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid.