Ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn acquitted of pimping charges in French court
PUBLISHED : Friday, 12 June, 2015, 6:59pm
UPDATED : Friday, 12 June, 2015, 7:01pm
Agence France-Presse in Lille, France
Dominique Strauss-Kahn enters his car as he leaves his apartment in Paris, France, headed to Lille for the verdict. He was cleared of vice charges. Photo: Reuters
Ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was acquitted today of pimping charges after a colourful three-week trial which exposed lurid details of champagne-fuelled orgies and prostitution.
The 66-year-old economist was all smiles as he arrived in court in the northern French city of Lille where even a prosecutor had called months ago for him to be cleared of the vice charges.
This comes four years after the silver-haired Strauss-Kahn saw his high-flying career at the head of the International Monetary Fund – and his French presidential prospects – implode when a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011.
Not long after those criminal charges were dropped and the case settled in a civil suit, his name cropped up in a probe into a prostitution ring in northern France, which provided sex workers for orgies he attended.
He was charged with “aggravated pimping” for allegedly aiding and abetting the prostitution of seven women, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
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At his trial in February, Strauss-Kahn calmly fended off the accusations, saying that while he was a libertine who enjoyed group sex, he was unaware any of the women attending the soirees had been paid to be there.
However, he lost his temper as lawyers pushed the former prostitutes to recount brutal scenes in which he sodomised them, allegedly without their permission, saying he was not on trial for “deviant practices”.
“I must have a sexuality which, compared to average men, is more rough. Women have the right not to like that, whether they are prostitutes or not,” he said.
Belgium-based French brothel owner Dominique Alderweireld (left), aka 'Dodo the Pimp', arrives at the courthouse with his lawyer. Photo: EPA
He said the use of prostitutes “horrified” him and that paying for sex would be too great a risk for a man at the head of the IMF, which was busy “saving the world” from the financial crisis that began in 2008.
In their closing arguments, his lawyers said the case against him had “collapsed” into nothing more than an indictment of Strauss-Kahn’s morals, and the prosecution appeared to agree.
Main prosecutor Frederic Fevre had called for Strauss-Kahn to be acquitted, saying that “neither the judicial enquiry nor the hearing have established that Mr Strauss-Kahn is guilty”.
In another boost for Strauss-Kahn, two ex-prostitutes who attended the orgies dropped a civil lawsuit against him, with lawyers saying they lacked enough proof to win the case.
Strauss-Kahn found himself in the dock alongside a colourful cast of 13 characters, including a senior police officer and brothel owner Dominique Alderweireld, known as “Dodo the Pimp”.
Alderweireld admits providing prostitutes to friends of Strauss-Kahn, who are among the accused, and testified to keeping the women’s true nature a secret as they sought to impress the “future president of the republic”.
Fevre called for a series of suspended sentences and fines ranging from 2,500 euros (HK$21,800) to 20,000 euros for the 13 other accused.
“This was not a mafia network that was dismantled,” said Fevre, but a group of friends trying to “satisfy egos, ambitions and quite simply, physical desires”.
