The life of a government is made up of departures and returns and I have left under less amicable conditions than those reserved to you, Sarkozy, a former interior and finance minister, told Dati and Barnier at a UMP meeting in Paris.

Karoutchi, who was born in Morocco in 1951, said both Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon had been happy to invite his partner to social events attended by other ministers with their wives or husbands.

A court acquitted the two in March 2008 and Ivanka Vacheva, the mother of the victim, accused judges of being bought by the father of one of the defendents.