27.03.2012
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was questioned by three judges on Monday over his role in a prostitution case in the northern French city of Lille that could see him placed under formal investigation.
The Socialist ex-finance minister, a strong contender to be France's next president until he was hit with sex assault charges in New York last May, appeared at the Lille court two days earlier than scheduled, although no official reason was given for the date change.
The Lille prosecutor's office said the closed hearing began on Monday afternoon and would likely run late into the evening.
Despite the change in date, a group of about 30 reporters and photographers waited outside the court, while scantily-clad women who appeared to be sex workers tried to drum up business nearby.
Using prostitutes is not illegal in France, but Strauss-Kahn risks a legal probe if investigators decide he knowingly had sex with prostitutes paid for out of company funds.
Strauss-Kahn went from being a highly respected politician to being hounded in the world's media after a New York hotel maid accused him of trying to rape her. The charges were dropped after prosecutors decided the maid's testimony was unreliable.
But Strauss-Kahn, 62, was hit with a separate sexual assault accusation in France and on Wednesday his lawyers will be in a Bronx courtroom fighting a civil lawsuit brought against him by the hotel maid.
The Lille case centers on allegations that a prostitution ring organized by Strauss-Kahn's business associates supplied clients at the city's Carlton Hotel.
Strauss-Kahn - who is now jobless and lives a life behind closed doors in Paris, mainly out of the public eye -- has denied the allegations, arguing that he was unaware women he met at parties organized by business associates in Lille, Paris and Washington were prostitutes.
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