Nicolas Sarkozy: Former French president in court over 2012 campaign spending

France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy has appeared in court over his 2012 election finances. His court appearance on 16 February is the latest in an ongoing investigation into his campaign financing, following a round of questioning in April 2015 over his spending during his failed 2012 presidential bid.

It is not known whether the 61-year-old is to be charged during the hearing, AFP reported, which is linked to the accusation that his campaign team exceeded the legally allowed spending limit for an election campaign in France, spending almost twice as much as Sarkozy's rivals.

Sarkozy has long denied any knowledge of the supposed false accounting that saw €18.5m (£14.3m, $20.7m) of election spending charged to his party rather than to the election campaign, which had a set limit of €22.5m.

Bygmalion, which ran the election campaign, is being investigated over false accounting, while 13 people from either the PR firm or Sarkozy's party, previously called UMP, have been charged with illegal election campaign financing, fraud or abuse of confidence.

It is not clear whether the recent court appearance will have any impact on Sarkozy's intention to run for president in the 2017 election.