Strauss-Kahn supporters demand probe into 'email hacking' claims

Shamed former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's supporters have appealed to French authorities to launch an investigation into new claims that President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party may have improperly accessed his personal email.

The online appeal from the support group 'Club DSK' follows a report published by an American journalist Edward Epstein, in The New York Review of Books, which has triggered speculation about a possible conspiracy aimed at destroying Strauss-Kahn's political career.

According to the report, sources close to Strauss-Kahn alleged that at least one private email sent from his mobile phone to his wife had been read at Sarkozy's UMP party offices, the Telegraph reports.

The report claimed that an unidentified friend of Strauss-Kahn,who had been working temporarily in the Paris offices of Sarkozy's conservative party, had warned him about it on May 14 when he was arrested for allegedly trying to rape a New York hotel maid.

Club DSK president Antonio Duarte, who said the group has 10,000 members, said that his organisation was considering filing a lawsuit, but no decision has been made.

For now, Club DSK appealed in a statement posted on its website for state prosecutors to examine the allegations, and for a parliamentary panel to be created to look into them.

Duarte said his group is simply a support group and does not represent Strauss-Kahn.