Credit Agricole deputy CEO, other Sarkozy aides questioned in probe

PARIS (Reuters) - Investigators detained Credit Agricole Deputy Chief Executive Xavier Musca and five other former aides to France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy for questioning on Wednesday over the alleged misuse of polls, a judicial source said. The other people held for questioning included former interior minister Claude Gueant, who was a secretary general to Sarkozy, a position Musca also held at one point. The six were released later on Wednesday, a police source said. Investigating judges are looking at whether there was a public interest in polls on subjects like the opposition and his personal life that were ordered by Sarkozy's staff during his 2007 to 2012 presidential term. Anti-corruption association Anticor has alleged that there was no public interest in polls conducted between 2007 and 2009 by a company run by an informal political adviser close to Sarkozy. France's public audit office had raised concerns as early as 2009 about a contract worth nearly 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million) with the firm because they were awarded without a competitive bidding process. Anticor have also raised questions about whether the same company and another firm run by a person close to Sarkozy had benefited from favouritism in public relations contracts. With an eye on getting re-elected in a 2017 presidential vote, Sarkozy is mounting a political comeback as the head of the centre-right opposition party, which he recently had renamed "the Republicans". ($1 = 0.8880 euros) (Reporting by Chine Labbe; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Toby Chopra)