

Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will face trial on pimping charges. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images



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.



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).



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.


"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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