FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy was arrested today and questioned by financial investigators in a corruption probe that is rattling France’s conservative political Establishment.

His interrogation in the Paris suburb of Nanterre was thought to be linked to an investigation linked to finance for his 2007 presidential campaign. 

The case centres around whether Mr Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog, who is also being held for questioning, were kept informed of insider information on the investigation by a friendly magistrate.

Both men have denied wrongdoing. Mr Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party has hinted darkly of a politically motivated pursuit of the former president.

Suspicions are based in part on tapped phone conversations that Mr Sarkozy has compared to actions by the Stasi in the former German Democratic Republic.

His arrest threatens to put a spoke in his wheel as he contemplates a political comeback following his 2012 defeat by President Francois Hollande.