PARIS (AFP/Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has given police the go-ahead to question Employment Minister Eric Woerth, after he was accused of receiving cash donations from France's richest woman.
Woerth, who has already stood down as chief fundraiser for Sarkozy's party, has been implicated in a series of financial scandals surrounding L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt's 17-billion-euro (21-billion-dollar) fortune.
He insists he has done nothing wrong and that he will not resign, but Sarkozy and his cabinet decided at their weekly meeting to allow officers probing the case to interview the minister, a government official said.
In a related development, Liliane Bettencourt, will be questioned by police next week.
“Mrs Bettencourt will be questioned in the course of next week by the financial police,” her lawyer Georges Kiejman said without specifying when exactly the questioning would take place. |
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