French investigators are studying accusations that Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape during a sex party in a Washington hotel in 2010 while he was chief of the International Monetary Fund, a judicial official said Friday.
Investigating judges in the northern French city of Lille have asked for prosecutors' permission to broaden a suspected prostitution probe to examine claims of rape in Washington in December 2010, said an official at the Lille prosecutor's office.
French daily Liberation reported Friday that two Belgian prostitutes questioned in the Lille probe described Strauss-Kahn as using violence during sex at the W Hotel in Washington and forcing one of them to have anal sex despite her protests.
Strauss-Kahn, via his lawyers, denied any violence and said he's the subject of a public "lynching campaign." The prominent economist, once a top contender for France's presidency, has seen his career and reputation crumble since he was accused of sexual assault in a New York hotel a year ago.
The prosecutor's office will decide next week whether to expand the investigation, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named because of prosecutor's office policy.
Strauss-Kahn is already a target in the Lille prostitution probe, which has mushroomed over the past year into a nationwide scandal. He is facing preliminary charges of alleged aggravated pimping, based on accusations by other people questioned in the investigation.
