PARIS — Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was handed preliminary charges Wednesday over allegations he accepted millions of euros in illegal campaign funding from the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

A judicial official said that investigative judges overseeing the probe gave the ex-president charges of illegally funding his 2007 winning campaign, passive corruption, and receiving money from Libyan embezzlement.

The charges came after Sarkozy was questioned for two days by anticorruption police at a station in Nanterre, northwest of the French capital. The investigation involves funding for his 2007 president campaign.

Investigators are examining allegations that Gadhafi’s regime secretly gave the politician 50 million euros overall for his campaign.

The sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time — 21 million euros. In addition, the alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and requiring that the source of campaign funds be declared.

Sarkozy, 63, who was France’s president from 2007-12, has repeatedly and vehemently denied any wrongdoing. According to the same source, he again proclaimed his innocence during his questioning.

In the French judicial system, preliminary charges mean Sarkozy is personally under formal investigation in a criminal case. The judges will keep investigating the case in the next weeks and months. At the end of the whole investigation, they can decide either to drop the preliminary charges or to send Sarkozy to trial on formal charges.

associated press