PARIS — A French appeals court on Wednesday rejected a demand from Dominique Strauss-Kahn to dismiss an investigation of him in connection with a ring that recruited prostitutes for sex parties from Paris to Washington.
His appeal was an effort to end the last of the legal problems that forced him to resign as head managing director of the International Monetary Fund and ruined his ambition to seek the French presidency. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 63, and his lawyers vowed to challenge the ruling from the court of appeal of Douai in northern France, which announced the decision without an explanation.
In the case, nine people in the northern city of Lille are under investigation for procurement of prostitutes, and in some cases, fraud. Mr. Strauss-Kahn has insisted that he was unaware that prostitutes were involved in the parties.
“This is not a victory for rights,” Frédérique Baulieu, a lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, said outside the courthouse in Douai. Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers had questioned the impartiality of judges, citing the leak of transcripts of his testimony when he was questioned by investigators and offered an explanation for his libertine lifestyle.
In October, the prosecutor’s office in Lille dropped sexual assault charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn after an “escort girl” withdrew her complaint about an incident that took place in Washington in December 2010, saying it was simply sex play.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his lawyers in the United States negotiated a confidential settlement earlier this month with Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel housekeeper who in 2011 accused him of sexual assault in a New York hotel room, charges that were dropped by the prosecutor because of doubts about Ms. Diallo’s credibility.
French Court Refuses to Dismiss Strauss-Kahn Sex Investigation
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French Court Refuses to Dismiss Strauss-Kahn Sex Investigation
