FRENCH FORMER IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will face trial on pimping charges along with 12 others in connection with an alleged prostitution ring at a Lille hotel, the local prosecutors’ office said today.

Prosecutors had in June called for the charges of “aggravated pimping as part of an organised gang” against Strauss-Kahn to be dropped, but investigating magistrates have decided he should face trial.

Strauss-Kahn admits attending orgies in France and the United States but claims he did not know the women involved were being paid to take part. He also denies helping procure prostitutes for sex parties.

The case, known as the “Carlton affair” in France, centres around allegations that business leaders and police officials in Lille operated a vice ring supplying girls for sex parties, some of which are said to have taken place at the Carlton Hotel in Douaiy.

New York maid

The trial won’t help Strauss-Kahn’s already tarnished reputation  after he was arrested in May 2011 in New York after a hotel worker alleged he had carried out a sexual assault on her.

The criminal case collapsed because of doubts about the alleged victim’s testimony.

Strauss-Kahn told CNN earlier this month that he was still angry with the US justice system over his treatment in 2011 when he was paraded before TV cameras in New York in handcuffs and said prosecutors violated the legal principle of being innocent until proven guilty.

“The problem is that it’s a moment where in all European, American society you are supposed to be innocent, you are supposed to be innocent until you are convicted,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn’s wife of some two decades, Anne Sinclair, loyally stood by him when the New York scandal erupted but the couple have since split. He has since started a relationship with Myriam L’Aouffir, a communications manager for France Télévisions.

- Additional report AFP

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