Finance

Finance

Strauss-Kahn Released After Questioning in Prostitution Inquiry

23 February 2012 08:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, was released from police custody yesterday after almost two days of questioning as part of an investigation into a French prostitution ring.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, turned himself in Feb. 21 to answer questions and spent a night in a jail cell in Lille, in northern France. He may be called back for further questioning in March, a prosecution spokeswoman said, declining to be identified citing office policy.

"There is nothing you can read into his being released" to tell where the case may go, said Christopher Mesnooh, a Paris-based lawyer not involved in the case.

Strauss-Kahn could be named as a material witness or charged, the spokeswoman said.

He gave up his post as managing director of the IMF last year after being arrested in New York for sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Prosecutors dropped the case because of concerns about the woman’s credibility and Strauss-Kahn returned to France, where he faced separate accusations of attempted rape, which were also dropped.

Strauss-Kahn "answered all questions," Frederique Baulieu, his lawyer, told television cameras outside the police station. "It is now in the hands of the judges."

French builder Eiffage SA filed an embezzlement complaint after an internal probe found an employee spent as much as 50,000 euros ($66,000) to pay for women to travel as far as Washington to have sex with Strauss-Kahn.