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Dominique Strauss-Kahn to stand trial for pimping, French prosecutors say Dominique Strauss-Kahn to stand trial for pimping, French prosecutors say
(about 2 hours later)
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to go on trial for pimping, French prosecutors have announced. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, is to go on trial on charges of pimping in connection with an alleged prostitution ring at a luxury hotel in the northern French city of Lille
Authorities in the northern city of Lille on Friday said investigating judges had determined that Strauss-Kahn, 64, who has been under investigation in the case since 2012, should be judged by a criminal court. Magistrates in France decided on Fridayto press ahead with charging the former Socialist minister in spite of calls by the state prosecutor for the case to be dropped.
The decision comes as a surprise after a public prosecutor had recommended in June that the inquiry be dropped without trial. Strauss-Kahn, 64, a former French presidential candidate, has admitted attending the "libertine" parties and having sex with a number of women. However, he has always insisted he did not know that some of them were prostitutes.
"We're not in the realm of the law, we're in ideology. We're sending someone to court for nothing," said Henri Leclerc, one of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers. The case, known as the Carlton affair after the luxury hotel where the orgies were said to have taken place, centres around allegations that businessmen and police officials in Lille operated a vice ring supplying women for sex parties.
The so-called Carlton affair, named after a hotel in Lille, involves sex parties that Strauss-Kahn has admitted attending. He says he was unaware that the women who participated were prostitutes. This affair, which came to light in late 2011, is the last of a series of inquiries into Strauss-Kahn since his arrest in New York in May 2011 where he was accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.
Strauss-Kahn is charged with aggravated pimping. Under French law pimping is a broad crime that can encompass aiding or encouraging the act of prostitution. Strauss-Kahn was charged with the more serious form because it allegedly involved more than one prostitute. The charges in the US were eventually dropped because of doubts over maid Nafissatou Diallo's credibility after she was found to have lied on her immigration claim, but Strauss-Kahn was later forced to pay her substantial damages reported to be in the region of $6m(£3.9m).
The crime carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison and a fine of €1m(£860,000) Two subsequent cases against the former French finance minister have also been dropped. An allegation of sexual assault against writer Tristane Banon in Paris in 2003 did not result in criminal charges because it had passed the legal time limit. In October last year, French prosecutors decided to drop an inquiry into allegations of gang rape at a hotel in Washington after one of the women involved who had made the claim retracted her evidence.
The former French finance minister quit his post as head of the International Monetary Fund in 2011 after being accused of raping a maid in New York. The charge was later dropped but the scandal dashed his hopes of standing for the French presidency. The state prosecutor had recommended that the Carlton affair charges against Strauss-Kahn be dropped on the grounds of a lack of evidence.
Magistrates decided otherwise; they put aside a charge of "aggravated pimping as part of an organised gang", but maintained the lesser charge of "aggravated pimping as part of a group". He is facing trial along with 12 other defendants.
In France pimping can cover a wide range of crimes including aiding or encouraging prostitution. A trial is expected to take place next year. If convicted, Strauss-Kahn could face up to 10 years in prison and a €1.5m (£860,000) fine.
The former IMF chief has vehemently denied all allegations against him and described them as "dangerous and malicious insinuations and extrapolations".
"It will all come out publicly before the tribunal and everyone will realise that there is nothing in this case," Henri Leclerc, one of Strauss Kahn's lawyers said on Friday.
Leclerc said the legal team was "under no illusions" about the "relentlessness shown by the investigating magistrates" and claimed Strauss-Kahn was being targeted because of his high profile.
"This decision is based on an ideological and moral analysis, but certainly not on any legal grounds. We're sending someone to court for nothing," said the lawyer.
After an earlier hearing into the Carlton affair, Leclerc told the French radio station Europe 1 that Strauss-Kahn could not have known whether the women at the parties were prostitutes.
"As you can imagine, at these kinds of parties you're not always dressed, and I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," Leclerc said.
Strauss-Kahn had been a frontrunner as the Socialist party's candidate to become French president in last year's election before his arrest in New York. He was forced to resign from his job as IMF chief and his third wife Anne Sinclair, a wealthy heiress and former television presenter, divorced him.
At the Cannes film festival in May, Strauss-Kahn was pictured with a new girlfriend, Moroccan-born Myriam L'Aouffir, 45, who works in the internet and social media department at France Television.
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