Ex-IMF head Strauss-Kahn 'not aware' of prostitutes at sex parties

Disgraced former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a French court Tuesday that he was unaware that women who participated in orgies at luxury hotels in Paris and Washington D.C. were prostitutes.

The 65-year-old and 13 co-defendants are on trial in this northern French city, accused of aggravated pimping in connection with a sex ring centered on the Hotel Carlton in Lille.

In his first testimony since the trial began Feb. 2, Strauss-Kahn reaffirmed his long-standing defense that he did not know of the "prostitutional character" of the women who took part in his orgies. The former banking chief’s arrival at the courthouse was disrupted by topless protesters from the activist group Femen, who were detained by police.

Inside court, Strauss-Kahn said the frequency of the sex parties had been wildly exaggerated.

"When you read the criminal complaint you get the impression it was this frenetic activity," Strauss-Kahn, wearing a sober black suit and grey tie, told the court.

"But it was four times a year, not more than that. It wasn't this out-of-control activity."

Speaking swiftly and confidently, he told the court that at that stage in his career he still had "political ambitions" and that his work at the IMF was an "important job."

Strauss-Kahn was tipped to become French president before being accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel chambermaid in 2011. U.S. criminal charges were dropped with allegations that he participated in a French sex ring emerging later.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers acknowledge their client took part in sex parties but say he did not know the women were prostitutes and so reject the charge against him of pimping, or in legal terms "procuring with aggravating circumstances."

Strauss-Kahn, who says his political career is already over, could face 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.72 million if convicted.

Investigating magistrates who sent the matter to trial say the procuring charge applies because in France it covers any activity seen as facilitating prostitution. In Strauss-Kahn's case, it is alleged that he allowed his rented apartment to be used for sex parties involving prostitutes and that the parties were organized for his benefit.

Moreover, because the charges say he did not pay the prostitutes himself, he is alleged to have received benefit in kind from prostitution.

The three-week trial began last week. Strauss-Kahn was responding on Tuesday for the first time to the testimony of two former prostitutes who say they participated in the parties.

Fourteen people in all, including Strauss-Kahn, are defendants in the "Carlton Affair" trial, so named after the hotel in Lille that sparked the investigation into a sex ring.

Strauss-Kahn, who was French finance minister in the late 1990s and headed the IMF from 2007, had been expected to run for French president in 2012 but withdrew after being accused of sexual assault by chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo.

That allowed Socialist Francois Hollande to come forward and beat conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

After the criminal charges were dropped, he settled civil proceedings brought against him by Diallo in New York.

Al Jazeera and wire services