Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was hit on Monday by the first formal legal complaint against him since his judicial immunity as head of state expired. The complaint came from a lawyer acting for victims of a 2002 bombing in Karachi that investigators believe may be linked to a long-running corruption and illegal party-financing case.
France's constitution shields presidents from testifying, being investigated and prosecution until a month after their term is up, which for Sarkozy was on Friday. His immunity had kept him from being involved in probes into a submarine sale to Pakistan in the 1990s and, separately, into relations between him, his party and France's wealthiest woman.
In the so-called "Karachi Affair", judges are trying to unravel dealings by middlemen and possible kickbacks linked to France's sale of Agosta class submarines to Pakistan. Investigators are looking into whether the sale was the source of illegal party financing during the 1995 presidential campaign.
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