Sex parties attended by Dominique Strauss-Kahn were described by witnesses as "carnage with a heap of mattresses on the floor", a newspaper said today, citing a report by judges who charged him with pimping.
The former IMF chief and 12 other defendants were last month ordered to stand trial on charges of "aggravated pimping as part of a group" over an alleged prostitution ring in the northern French city of Lille.
French daily Le Figaro today published extracts from a legal document in which judges probing the case laid out the reasons why they ordered the 64-year-old to face trial.
The case centres on allegations that prostitutes were supplied for sex parties in Lille, some of which are said to have taken place at the city's upmarket Carlton Hotel.
Magistrates in the affair are examining whether Strauss-Kahn knew that the women involved in the orgies were being paid -- a claim he has always strenuously denied.
The pimping charge against Strauss-Kahn is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up 1.5 million euros USD 2 million).
The so-called "Carlton affair" came to light after Strauss-Kahn resigned from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund over an alleged sexual assault on a New York hotel maid.
That case was closed in December when Strauss-Kahn agreed to pay undisclosed damages -- reportedly in excess of USD 1.5 million -- to the hotel maid. He has always said the encounter was consensual.
