LILLE, France — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund who is accused of participating in a global sex ring, said on Tuesday that he had committed no crime and had not engaged in any “unbridled” behavior.
His comments came at the beginning of testimony that was expected to hinge on a novel defense: that lust is no crime.
In a trial that has drawn international news media interest, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister once seen as a leading contender for the French presidency, stands accused with 13 other defendants of pimping and of aiding and abetting the prostitution of seven women.
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Prosecutors say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn participated in a traveling international sex circuit where businessmen helped pay for parties costing as much as $13,000. Some of the money went to prostitutes, according to a lawyer for the main host, because not enough women were present.
The trial is the latest legal challenge for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who had scaled the heights of the French establishment and the world of international banking before a series of scandals sent his political career crashing. In 2011, he resigned as head of the I.M.F. after he was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper at a hotel in New York. The charges were later dropped.
He has since been trying to restart his career, working as a consultant, lecturing and advising foreign countries such as Serbia as well as large companies in Russia, Africa and Latin America.
