Pimping case against DSK close to collapse as five withdraw accusations
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 17 February, 2015, 10:41am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 17 February, 2015, 10:41am
Associated Press in Lille, France
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves his hotel on Monday in the northern French city of Lille on his way to his trial. Photo: AFP
A high-profile pimping case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has nearly unravelled, as five of six plaintiffs in a French prostitution trial dropped their accusations against him, saying there’s no proof that the former International Monetary Fund chief violated the law.
Strauss-Kahn has testified to having orgies while he was managing the world financial crisis, to being “rough” with his sexual “conquests”, and to needing sex with exceptional frequency. But none of that is illegal.
As the trial in northern France entered its third and final week Monday, it looked increasingly likely that the onetime presidential contender will walk away with a clean criminal record.
Strauss-Kahn is accused of aggravated pimping over a series of sex parties in France, Washington and Brussels, while he was leading the IMF, and was married. He’s one of 14 people accused of involvement in a prostitution ring run out of the Hotel Carlton in Lille.
Strauss-Kahn insists he didn’t know the women involved were prostitutes. Two of his co-defendants say they recruited and paid the women themselves, and built a wall of silence to ensure that Strauss-Kahn wasn’t aware.
Lawyers for four prostitutes and an association that had filed suit announced Monday that they are abandoning their pursuit of Strauss-Kahn, court officials said. The five plaintiffs maintained accusations against other defendants in the trial, but the prostitutes are seeking only one euro in symbolic damages from the others, the officials said.
Only one association, a group pushing to abolish prostitution called Nid or “nest,” maintained its accusations against Strauss-Kahn and his 13 co-defendants.
That could still be enough to persuade the three-judge panel to hand down convictions.
But even the prosecutor didn’t think there was enough of a case against Strauss-Kahn, and argued in 2013 against including him in the trial. Under French law, investigating judges can override prosecutors’ recommendations and send someone to trial anyway, which they did with Strauss-Kahn.
He faces up to 10 years in prison and 1.5 million euros (HK$13.2 million) in fines if convicted. But Prosecutor Frederic Fevre could argue for acquittal for Strauss-Kahn during closing arguments today, focusing instead on getting convictions for other defendants.
During three days of surrealistic testimony by Strauss-Kahn about the orgies, the prosecutor and his assistant remained largely silent.
Sometimes in tears, two prostitutes described “beast-like” scenes, involving sometimes brutal sex practices. One said she felt like meat in a slaughterhouse.
The testimony showed what one lawyer called the “sordid and dark reality” of the sex business. But the prostitutes said they had participated of their own accord and were never paid directly by Strauss-Kahn, and never told him they were paid sex workers.
Even a plaintiff’s lawyer acknowledged the case isn’t black and white. “I have the absolute certainty that Mr Strauss-Kahn knew that there were some prostitutes in this international ring. Is that sufficient to establish a pimping offence? We will debate about that,” lawyer David Lepidi said.
Strauss-Kahn’s IMF job and presidential chances collapsed in 2011 when he was arrested in New York on accusations that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid. Those charges were later dropped and he settled out of court. He was also accused of attempted rape of a French writer; that case was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.
The Lille case is the first time he has been put on trial. He openly testified to extravagant sex, but said he thought the women present were “libertines” like himself.
To prove that Strauss-Kahn is guilty, the trial has to show that Strauss-Kahn knew the women were prostitutes, and that he arranged their activities as prostitutes or profited financially from them. Prostitution is legal in France, but it’s illegal to organize a prostitution ring or profit from a prostitute’s business.
Chief judge Bernard Lemaire opened the trial by stressing the court would not judge sexual activities among consenting adults.
“The court,” he said, “is not the guardian of moral order, but of the law.”
