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    April 30, 2012

French President to Sue Website for Defamation

   VOA News
   French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C), UMP party candidate for
   re-election in the 2012 French presidential elections, waves as he
   arrives to Chateaurenard before a campaign rally in Avignon, France,
   April 30, 2012.
   Photo: Reuters
   French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C), UMP party candidate for
   re-election in the 2012 French presidential elections, waves as he
   arrives to Chateaurenard before a campaign rally in Avignon, France,
   April 30, 2012.

   French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will bring charges against a
   news website for claiming that late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi had
   offered to give him $50 million to help finance his first presidential
   bid.
   French website Mediapart reported Saturday that it had obtained a 2006
   Libyan document signed by Libya's then-intelligence chief, Moussa
   Koussa, with the offer.
   Sarkozy told France Television Two Monday that the claim was grotesque,
   and said he would file a lawsuit before the end of the current
   presidential campaign.
   Sarkozy spearheaded Western military intervention that helped drive the
   Libyan leader from power in a 2011 popular uprising.
   France will hold a runoff election Sunday, with Sarkozy trailing
   socialist candidate Francois Hollande in opinion polls. Hollande
   emerged as the frontrunner in the April 22 first-round vote, edging the
   incumbent with 28 percent of the vote to Sarkozy's 27 percent.

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