Dominique Strauss-Kahn fails to get judges to drop pimping charges

Court in northern France to proceed with sex offence inquiry against former IMF chief relating to prostitution ring.

French judges have decided not to drop aggravated pimping charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. His lawyer says the former International Monetary Fund chief will appeal.

The verdict on Wednesday came just over a week after Strauss-Kahn settled a separate civil case in New York with the hotel maid who accused him of attempted rape in May 2011, ending his presidential ambitions and career at the IMF.

While the New York settlement brought his US legal woes to an end, the decision by the court in Douai, in northern France, removed the prospect of a quick conclusion to the last sex offence inquiry he faces.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn's defence team is certain that he will ultimately be cleared of these absurd accusations of pimping," lawyer Henri Leclerc said in a statement, adding that he planned to take the matter to France's supreme court.

Strauss-Kahn, once tipped to become president of France, is under fire over sex parties with prostitutes in the so-called Carlton Affair, named after a hotel in northern France at the centre of the inquiry.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have said he attended "libertine" gatherings but did not know some women present were paid.

His lawyers argue that consorting with prostitutes is not illegal and that investigators have no grounds for pursuing him on the grounds that his behaviour could be construed as pimping, which is illegal.

(Published by The Guardian - December 19, 2012)