PARIS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- French anti-corruption investigators on Thursday squeezed left-wing leader Jean -Luc Melenchon over his role in the alleged misuse of European parliament funds and funding of his presidential campaign in 2017.
Melenchon, a veteran communist, apperead at 10:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) in Nanterre court, west Paris, where he was still heard as part of two separate inquiries into alleged use of European Parliament funds to pay party employees and financial irregularities during his presidential campaign last year.
"There is an engaged escalation, a judicial escalation in the context of a pressure operation. They want to scare us, intimidate us," the 67-year-old anti-Europe politician said before the hearing.
On Tuesday, police searched Melenchon's home and "Unbowed France" party in a raid that the left leader broadcast live by his mobile phone.
Images showed a heated standoff after Melenchon tried to force down the door of the party's headquarters, shouting at a policeman "I'm the Republic! I'm the one who is a parliamentarian. Get out of the way and open up this door."
On Wednesday, Paris prosecutor's office said it had launched an investigation for "threats and acts of intimidation against judicial authorities" and "violence against people carrying out public duties."
