Strauss-Kahn and Anne Sinclair sue Sarkozy aide, French media

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife are suing a top aide of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and several media outlets over reports linking him to a prostitution probe, their lawyers said Tuesday.

Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

The disgraced former IMF chief and his multi-millionaire wife Anne Sinclair claim their right to privacy has been breached - an offence under French law - by the media and by Sarkozy aide Henri Guaino.

Strauss-Kahn's name has been linked to a judicial investigation into an illegal prostitution ring operating out of luxury hotels in the northern French city of Lille and a string of Belgian brothels.

Press reports based on leaks from the investigation have said prostitutes from the Lille network were taken to Paris and Washington to entertain the then IMF director at orgies in restaurants and five star hotels.

Strauss-Kahn has demanded to be questioned by the judges and called for a probe into the leaks, but it is not yet clear whether he will face charges.

His lawyers said Tuesday they had served writs on the daily newspaper Le Figaro and the weekly magazines L'Express, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris Match and VSD.

They are also planning to press charges against Guaino over a television interview in which he said that in the Strauss-Kahn affair "one is in a zone where private life meets criminality".

Strauss-Kahn, a 62-year-old Socialist politician and former presidential hopeful, resigned from the International Monetary Fund in May after he was arrested and accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.

The US case against him eventually collapsed, but he has been dogged by
scandal since returning to France.