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Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been detained for questioning by French police investigating a prostitution ring.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, once a front-runner for the French presidency, could be held for 48 hours at a police station in Lille, northern France.
Investigators have already questioned a number of prostitutes who have admitted having sex with Mr Strauss-Kahn.
He insists he did not know that the women were prostitutes.
"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.
Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2011 after he was charged in New York with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The case was later dropped.
In this separate inquiry, French police have already arrested eight men on suspicion of organising a prostitution ring and misusing corporate funds to pay for sex in a scandal known as the "Carlton affair" because of a Lille hotel where clients were allegedly supplied with call-girls.
Three of the suspects were said to have been close to Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is said to have taken part in sex parties in Paris and Washington in late 2010 and early 2011.
The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says that although consorting with prostitutes is legal in France, supplying them to others and misusing company funds to pay for them are not.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been tipped as a potential Socialist candidate in the April presidential elections until his arrest in New York in May last year.
One of the sex parties, allegedly organised by two of the eight suspects, Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet, is believed to have taken place in the US shortly before he was detained.
Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France in September 2011 although the hotel maid involved in the case is pursuing a civil action.
'Ear infection'
The former IMF head said nothing as he arrived at a Lille police station in a car that was immediately surrounded by dozens of journalists.
A lawyer acting on his behalf, Frederique Beaulieu, arrived some time later.
Four investigators are involved in the questioning, Le Figaro reports, and have three police cells and four offices at their disposal.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is reported to have an ear infection and has the right to request a doctor's examination while in custody. The doctor could, theoretically, call for questioning to be suspended although that is considered unlikely.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, once a front-runner for the French presidency, could be held for 48 hours at a police station in Lille, northern France.
Investigators have already questioned a number of prostitutes who have admitted having sex with Mr Strauss-Kahn.
He insists he did not know that the women were prostitutes.
"I challenge you to distinguish a naked prostitute from any other naked woman," his lawyer Henri Leclerc has told French television.
Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2011 after he was charged in New York with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The case was later dropped.
In this separate inquiry, French police have already arrested eight men on suspicion of organising a prostitution ring and misusing corporate funds to pay for sex in a scandal known as the "Carlton affair" because of a Lille hotel where clients were allegedly supplied with call-girls.
Three of the suspects were said to have been close to Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is said to have taken part in sex parties in Paris and Washington in late 2010 and early 2011.
The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Paris, says that although consorting with prostitutes is legal in France, supplying them to others and misusing company funds to pay for them are not.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been tipped as a potential Socialist candidate in the April presidential elections until his arrest in New York in May last year.
One of the sex parties, allegedly organised by two of the eight suspects, Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet, is believed to have taken place in the US shortly before he was detained.
Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France in September 2011 although the hotel maid involved in the case is pursuing a civil action.
'Ear infection'
The former IMF head said nothing as he arrived at a Lille police station in a car that was immediately surrounded by dozens of journalists.
A lawyer acting on his behalf, Frederique Beaulieu, arrived some time later.
Four investigators are involved in the questioning, Le Figaro reports, and have three police cells and four offices at their disposal.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is reported to have an ear infection and has the right to request a doctor's examination while in custody. The doctor could, theoretically, call for questioning to be suspended although that is considered unlikely.