French court: Strauss-Kahn case to proceed

DOUAI, France, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A French appeals court rejected ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's request to dismiss a sex investigation to which he is linked.

Strauss-Kahn, 63, and his lawyers said they would challenge the ruling, announced Wednesday, in an investigation a prostitution ring that supplied women for sex parties in global capitals, The New York Times reported.

Nine people from Lille, in northern France, are under investigation for procuring prostitutes, and fraud. Strauss-Kahn has insisted he didn't know prostitutes were involved in the parties.

"This is not a victory for rights," Frederique Baulieu, a member of Strauss-Kahn's legal team, said outside the courthouse in Douai.

Among other things, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers questioned the judges' impartiality, citing the leak of transcripts when he was questioned by investigators and explained his lifestyle.

His attorneys argued that charging Strauss-Kahn with aggravated pimping is "unhealthy, sensationalist" and politically motivated, CNN said.

In October, the prosecutor's office in Lille dropped sexual assault charges against Strauss-Kahn after a woman withdrew her complaint about an incident in Washington in December 2010, saying it was sex play.

Strauss-Kahn and his lawyers also negotiated a confidential settlement last week with Nafissatou Diallo, the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault in a hotel room in 2011. Prosecutors later dropped the charges, saying they doubted the woman's credibility.

He also faced allegations of attempted rape from a young French writer, who claimed he attacked her in 2003. Prosecutors, however, said the statute of limitations barred them from pursuing the case.