Strauss-Kahn to be quizzed

the source said, confirming a report in La Voix du Nord newspaper on Saturday.
He is to be taken into custody and questioned for up to 48 hours, according to the regional daily.
Messages left for Strauss-Kahn’s Paris attorney were not immediately returned.
Once seen as a likely contender against French President Nicolas Sarkozy in upcoming elections, Strauss-Kahn bowed out of public life after his US arrest on allegations that he attempted to rape a Guinean hotel maid.
The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, is now pursuing him in a civil action after prosecutors dropped criminal charges.
Separate attempted-rape accusations by a Parisian writer were also shelved by French police on October 13 – three days before Strauss-Kahn’s name surfaced again in the Lille investigation.
The probe is focused on a prostitution ring that allegedly supplied women to clients of the city’s luxury Carlton hotel.
The affair has already led to the arrests of several leading figures in the city, including businessmen and police chiefs.
French construction firm Eiffage dismissed an executive suspected of using company funds to hire prostitutes, who allegedly took part in sex parties with Strauss-Kahn in Paris and Washington.
Strauss-Kahn believed he was participating in swingers’ parties and had no reason to suspect that the women were prostitutes, his lawyer Henri Leclerc has previously said.
Consorting with prostitutes is legal in France, but supplying prostitutes to others is illegal.
It is also illegal for an official to accept gifts of any kind from a company. Reports say Strauss-Kahn could be charged if magistrates deem that he was aware the women who took part in sex parties he is alleged to have attended were prostitutes.
Strauss Kahn’s lawyer has previously said the former IMF chief thought he was participating in swingers’ parties and had no reason to believe the women involved were prostitutes.
French newspapers have carried reports for months about alleged links between Strauss-Kahn and a call-girl racket, known as the Carlton affair after the name of the Lille hotel where clients were allegedly supplied with prostitutes.
Strauss Kahn has demanded to be questioned by the judges leading the investigation, in the hope it will bring a halt to such newspaper reports and clear his name.
Strauss Kahn’s lawyers have previously said that he will take legal action over his alleged invasion of privacy.
Israel has meanwhile advanced a bill to halt prostitution. A Knesset committee unanimously approved a bill that would levy severe punishment on consumers of sexual services in Israel.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation advanced the measure to the full Knesset on February12.
Under the bill, first-time offenders would be required to attend a class on public health that would include presentations by former prostitutes. Repeat offenders could face up to six months in prison.
Based on laws enacted in Sweden, Iceland, Norway and most recently France, the model works on the principle that to combat sex trafficking and prostitution, the demand for sexual services must be confronted.
The Kadima Party’s Orit Zuaretz, chair of the Knesset’s Sub-committee on Trafficking in Women, introduced the bill. More than 15 000 individuals are estimated to be working in the prostitution industry in Israel, including 5 000 minors. – Reuters/bbc.co.uk/Jewish Telegraphic Agency.