Summary: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, once hopeful to become France’s next president, has been acquitted of pimping charges related to several sex parties.
Bloomberg Business reports that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 66, the previous head of the International Monetary Fund, has been acquitted in a case in which he faced aggravated pimping charges. Strauss-Kahn was charged in connection to several sex parties he attended a few years ago.
The verdict was announced in a court in Lille on Friday. The panel of judges explained that there was conflicting testimony about Strauss-Kahn’s participation in the parties. The conflicting testimony came from seven prostitutes. In addition, there was not enough evidence to prove that Strauss-Kahn assisted with setting up the parties.
A White House volunteer was accused of hiring prostitutes in Colombia.
The incident was called the Carlton Affair after the hotel where some of the parties allegedly took place in Lille. Strauss-Kahn argued that he attended some private events of a similar nature, but that any sexual activity was consensual and that he could not have known that prostitutes were present.
One of the judges commented, “We cannot impute the role of instigator on someone who exchanged 35 text messages over a period of 22 months.” The text messages were between Strauss-Kahn and another defendant, according to the New York Times.
Although Strauss-Kahn has dodged a bullet in this case, his career has already been tainted by several sex scandals. In 2011, Strauss-Kahn was in line to replace Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president of France, when he was removed from an Air France plane in New York and was accused of assaulting a hotel housekeeper. The charges were dismissed, but the incident has haunted Strauss-Kahn since.
Henri Leclerc, Strauss-Kahn’s attorney, said, “We knew that the contradictory public testimony would show the emptiness of this case.”
In June of 2013, a Texas man was acquitted of murdering a prostitute that refused sex.
Ultimately, 13 of the 14 defendants were acquitted of pimping charges. Rene Kojfer, the director of marketing at the Carlton Hotel, received a suspended sentence of one year.
Interestingly, prostitution and paying for sex are not illegal according to French law. However, securing prostitutes for others is a crime.
Testimony during the trial detailed orgies, car rides with prostitutes, and claims from women that Strauss-Kahn demanded “animal” sex from them, leaving many of them in tears.
Leclerc remarked, “Everyone can see that there was strictly no legal basis for this case, and that this entire affair, and the uproar surrounding it, should give us reason to reflect.”
In 2013, a British nursing home was accused of providing prostitutes to its residents.
Strauss-Kahn testified that he had a right to enjoy a private life, and that he was being prosecuted for his lifestyle.
The judge added that Strauss-Kahn could not be guilty when he had not participated in the Lille sex parties, which connected the 14 defendants. Other parties supposedly took place in Belgium, New York, and Washington, D.C., according to CNN.
The only defendant for whom a prison term was requested, Dominique “Dodo La Saumure” Alderweireld, was acquitted. Alderweireld operates several massage parlors.
Source: Bloomberg Business
Photo credit: The Guardian