Top French court hears Nicolas Sarkozy case

Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyers have asked France's highest court to throw out evidence obtained through wiretaps of phone conversations between the former French president and his main lawyer. It is one of several legal cases in which the opposition leader's name has appeared, but the most potentially damaging to his political future. He is expected to seek the conservative nomination to run for president again next year. Mr Sarkozy is under preliminary charges for active corruption and influence-peddling based on information gleaned from the phone taps in 2013-2014. His lawyers have said they were carried out in breach of a lawyer-client privilege. A lower court ruled the phone taps did not break any laws and Mr Sarkozy appealed. The Cour de Cassation heard the case and will rule at a later date. Mr Sarkozy did not attend. His phones were tapped as part of an investigation into suspected illegal financing of his successful 2007 presidential campaign. But conversations heard via the phone taps brought to light a completely new legal case. During Thursday's hearing, the lawyers also argued that the evidence gathered from the phone taps was illegally diverted from the initial...

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