Sarkozy sues ex police spy chief
Former head of police intelligence agency dishes dirt in memoirs and newspaper interviews.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has filed suit for malicious falsehood against the former head of French police intelligence over diaries published in a news magazine, the president's lawyer said.
The private notebooks of Yves Bertrand, who was head of the Renseignements Généraux police spy agency, were published this month in Le Point in a report which the magazine called "a terrifying journey under the skirts of the Republic."
The notebooks cover the period from 1998 to 2003 when Sarkozy was interior minister, and include allegations about the private lives of several leading politicians.
Le Point's report said the diaries include potentially explosive claims about adultery, wife-swapping, drug abuse and north African sex tourism allegedly indulged in by senior French political figures.
Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog said the suit accuses Bertrand of malicious falsehood, forgery and invasion of privacy.
The notebooks were seized during a raid carried out as part of an inquiry into an alleged smear campaign targeting Sarkozy when interior minister.
They were later leaked to Le Point.
Sarkozy abolished the RG political police this year and merged its staff and intelligence files with the former DST domestic security service to form a new FBI-style national police agency.
Former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has also told interviewers that he and his family were subject to spying.
Photo: Jean-Louise Aubert (wikipedia)
