PARIS -- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has reportedly denied all allegations that he accepted millions of euros in illegal campaign funding from the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"I am accused without any physical evidence" Sarkozy said in his statement to the investigating judges, according to Le Figaro newspaper, which published the text online Thursday.
He said he is "living the hell of this slander" since 2011 and denounced the accusations as lies.
Sarkozy's entourage did not immediately confirm the text's authenticity, but did not dispute it either. His spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, arrived at the former president's home in Paris Thursday morning.
French channel TF1 said Sarkozy will be interviewed on its main news program on Thursday night.
Sarkozy, 63, on Wednesday was handed preliminary charges of illegally funding his successful 2007 campaign, passive corruption and receiving money from Libyan embezzlement after being questioned for two days by anticorruption police.
Investigators are examining allegations that Gadhafi's regime secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros ($62 million) for his 2007 presidential election bid.
The former president was released on Wednesday night, but placed under judicial supervision. Details of the conditions he has been ordered to follow have not been revealed.
Sarkozy was France's president from 2007 to 2012. He put France in the forefront of the NATO-led airstrikes against Gadhafi's troops that helped rebel fighters topple Gadhafi's regime in 2011.
An investigation has been underway since 2013 into the case.
It got a boost when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told the online investigative site Mediapart in 2016 that he delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros ($6.2 million) in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff, Claude Gueant.
Takieddine repeated his allegations during a live interview with France's BFM TV on Wednesday night. He said the money was not meant to finance Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007, but to honour contracts between France and Libya.
"Mr. Takieddine lies," Sarkozy told the judges according to the text published by Le Figaro.
Chris Den Hond and Philippe Sotto in Paris contributed to the story
