Strauss-Kahn may face sex ring charges
LILLE - Reuters
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was placed under formal investigation on March 26 by authorities looking into a suspected prostitution ring in the French city of Lille, his lawyer said, following a day of questioning by judges in a closed courtroom.The investigation on suspicion of complicity in a pimping operation is the latest judicial headache for the Socialist ex-finance minister. The move could lead to a trial but it falls short of charging him.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was a strong contender to be France’s next president until he was hit with sex-assault charges, now-dismissed, in New York last May, was allowed to leave the court after being questioned by three judges in the case.
The Lille prosecutor’s office said in a statement he was required to post 100,000 euros in bail. Outside the courthouse, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Richard Malka, said his client was innocent.
“He states with the strongest firmness to be guilty of none of these acts and in particular to not have had the least awareness that certain women he met could have been prostitutes,” Malka told the press.
