Strauss-Kahn invite angers Cambridge students

LONDON: Hundreds of students at Britain's Cambridge University have signed a petition against an invitation to disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to address students, activists said.

Strauss-Kahn, who quit as head of the International Monetary Fund in May amid allegations that he sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid, is scheduled to speak at the Cambridge Union debating society on March 9.

But at least 362 students have signed a petition urging the society to drop the invitation to the French politician, who now faces a new scandal after he was questioned this week about a prostitution ring.

"To choose to give this man an opportunity to speak trivialises the experiences of women who bravely come forward and report rape and sexual assault," Ruth Graham, women's officer at the student union, told.

"It legitimises Strauss-Kahn's role in public life at a time when he is yet again being questioned by the police."

But the debating society defended inviting DSK, as he is known in France, to give a speech on the global economy, saying it had been regularly asking him to come and speak on the topic since 2010. (AFP)