Strauss-kahn walks free again

LILLE: The former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief, Dominique Strauss-kahn, was released from police custody last night after being questioned for two days in a prostitution case.

Strauss-kahn, whose IMF job and prospects of becoming the next French president ended in May after his arrest in New York on now-dropped sex assault charges, would have to meet a judge for further questioning, a court said, without giving a date.

That could open the door to a formal investigation being opened against him in the case, which centres on allegations that a prostitution ring organised by business acquaintances of Strauss-kahn supplied clients of Lille’s luxury Carlton Hotel.

Police want to establish whether Strauss-kahn knew that women at parties he attended in Lille, Paris and Washington were prostitutes. His lawyer, Frederique Beaulieu, has said he had no reason to think the women were prostitutes, noting it was not always easy to tell the difference between a “classy lady” and a prostitute when they were naked.

Investigators can either drop all pursuit of Strauss-kahn or formally put him under investigation. He could be investigated on suspicion of complicity in a pimping operation or of having benefited from misappropriated company funds if he knowingly attended sessions with prostitutes that company executives he knew paid for using expense accounts. – Reuters