Strauss-Kahn: I didn't know the women were prostitutes

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Strauss-Kahn: I didn't know the women were prostitutes 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.

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn denied allegations Tuesday that he knowingly helped organize orgies with sex workers.

Strauss-Kahn, 65, was testifying at a court in northern France for his alleged connection with a prostitution ring at a hotel in Lille.

"I committed no crime," Strauss-Kahn, once thought to be a contender for the French presidency, said in a letter read to the court as he took the stand.

Strauss-Kahn said he was not aware the women in question, whom he admits participated in orgies at luxury hotels in Paris and Washington, D.C., were prostitutes. He said he ignored their "prostitutional character" and that he himself had only taken part occasionally and that there had been no "wild activity."

Strauss-Kahn and 13 others are accused of aggravated pimping based on hundreds of pages of testimony provided to investigators by prostitutes describing the orgies.

Prosecutors allege, and Strauss-Kahn denies, that he played a key role in arranging the orgies.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1.7 million fine. It's not illegal to pay for sex in France, but it's against the law to solicit or to run a prostitution business.

The trial began Feb. 2, but Tuesday was the first time Strauss-Kahn testified. Strauss-Kahn is widely known as DSK following an earlier sex scandal in New York that was settled in an out-of-court deal two years ago.

As part of witness testimony for the prosecution Tuesday, a retired prostitute known as Mounia recounted how Strauss-Kahn insisted that she perform a sexual act on him that she described as unnatural.

"I think he realized I didn't want to do it. I was crying, I was in pain," Mounia said from the witness stand.

Earlier, as Strauss-Kahn arrived to give testimony, a group of topless protesters swarmed outside the courthouse and at one point appeared to leap onto his car before being dragged away by police. The words "pimp, clients, guilty" were painted on their chests.

Activists from the feminist group Femen have staged events around Europe over the last few years, including recently in Davos, Switzerland, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Contributing: The Associated Press