French judge allows corruption case against former President Sarkozy

A French Appeals Court judge on Tuesday ruled that a corruption case against former President Nicolas Sarkozy and eleven others could continue and determine if the group was involved in "abuse of frailty" of billionaire heiress Liliane Bettencourt and of taking cash from a vulnerable person. Media reports from the French court in the southwest city of Bordeaux said that Sarkozy and lawyers for the other parties had their appeal thrown out. The Court rejected a protest alleging that medical evidence on Bettencourt was unreliable because one of the doctors had links with the investigating magistrate in the case, Judge Jean-Marie Gentil, "France 24" TV said. Sarkozy and a number of associates are being investigated to determine if they illegally extracted funds from Bettencourt, who heads the L'Oreal cosmetics empire. As France's richest woman and a billionaire, Bettencourt is now 90 but would have been in her early eighties at the time of the alleged crimes. Sarkozy and several others were charged earlier this year with accepting cash payments from Bettencourt at a time she was not mentally functional to make such decisions. But the prosecutor's office has recommended that the charges be dropped against Sarkozy because of lack of evidence and the former President staunchly denies any wrongdoing. The case will now work to determine who will stand trial for wrongdoing and who will not. The funds from Bettencourt were alleged to have been used to help finance the former President's 2007 election campaign. Sarkozy is also alleged to have taken money from other sources, including Euros 50 million from former Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi and that case is being investigated separately