Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come out fighting on French TV news to dismiss as “grotesque” the charges of corruption facing him.

He dismissed the legal process that saw him detained for questioning and placed under investigation as betraying a “will to humiliate” him, and a “political manipulation”.

“I’m deeply shocked at what’s happened. I’m not asking for a privilege, if I’ve done something wrong I accept the consequences. I’m not a man who runs away from his responsibilities. I’d just like to appeal to everyone watching, imagine, is it normal I should be bugged and my most intimate conversations listened to since last September?” he insisted.