No Oil Painting
I enjoyed this article in The Independent which reports on the trial in France of Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK) who is charged with 'aggravated pimping' and 'arranging sex parties with prostitutes'.
Apparently non one really expects the DSK who is 65 too end up in jail as a result of these allegations in which case these French authorities should televise the trial as an alternative comedy show because part of DSK's defence is that he did not know the women at his parties were prostitutes.
Now that takes the biscuit if you ask me and it beggars belief that the 65-year-old former head of an important global organisation like the International Monetary Fund seems to believe that women young enough to be his grand-daughters start shedding their clothes in his company because of his stunning, Gallic good looks.
Puh-lease.
'Orgies sans frontières': Strauss-Kahn appears in court on pimping charge
Lawyers claim allegations result from illegal tapping of DSK’s phone
By JOHN LICHFIELD - The Independent
Defence lawyers tried yesterday to turn the trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn into a trial, by insinuation, of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The lawyers suggested that “pimping” allegations against the former IMF chief resulted directly from the illegal tapping of Mr Strauss-Kahn’s phone by the Sarkozy administration in 2010.
They called for the much-awaited trial in Lille to be abandoned on the grounds that it flowed from a political “plot” to gather dirt on Mr Strauss-Kahn when he was favourite to unseat Mr Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election.
The allegations are based on a book written by a former police chief in northern France and claims made by a documentary film shown last night on French television. Although the attempt to stop the trial was rejected by the presiding judges, the defence challenge threw a large boulder into what was already a complex case.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, a former senior detective, a lawyer, three businessmen, a sex-club owner and eight other people went on trial yesterday for “aggravated pimping”. Even without Mr Strauss-Kahn, the “DSK trial” would have been a gripping affair. A cross-section of the great and good of northern France, some reportedly linked through membership of a Freemasons’ lodge, is accused of organising sex parties with prostitutes.
How the former IMF chief came to be mired in this provincial scandal is at the core of the legal argument. Through DSK’s influence, the prosecution claims, the Lille sex ring turned into a series of “orgies sans frontières” in Paris, Brussels, Washington, New York, Vienna and Madrid.
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s presence at the sex parties is not disputed. According to the prosecution, his involvement was revealed after he was arrested in New York in May 2011 on attempted rape allegations (which were later settled out of court). Defence lawyers insisted, however, that credible evidence exists that the investigation began with the bugging of the then IMF director’s phone by the Sarkozy administration the previous year. This meant, they argued, that the whole trial was based on a “lie” and should be abandoned.
Dominique Alderweireld, who is one of the defendants, and his companion arriving on the first day of the trial (Reuters)
The three presiding judges ruled last night that the trial should continue but agreed to reconsider the defence arguments at the end of the scheduled three weeks of hearings. The unwilling star of the show, Mr Strauss-Kahn, 65, managed to avoid the media spotlight on the first day by entering the court through an underground car park. His first big moment on stage will come when he takes the stand a week today.
The former French Finance Minister and IMF chief sat in the first row of the 14 defendants yesterday. He was accused of “helping, assisting and protecting the prostitution” of seven women in several countries “between 29 March 2008 and 4 October 2011”. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to €1.5m.
All other attempts to prosecute Mr Strauss-Kahn for alleged sexual misconduct since he was arrested in a New York hotel in 2011 have failed or been settled out of court.
His conviction in the Lille case is far from certain. The judges must decide whether DSK was not just a participant in the orgies (something he does not deny) but that he also helped to organise them.
He and 12 of the other defendants are accused of “aggravated pimping in an organised group”. Under French law, any action which furthers prostitution can be considered as pimping. The other defendants include Dominique Alderweireld, the owner of sex clubs in Belgium close to the French border. Mr Alderweireld, known as “Dodo la Saumure” or “Dodo the Mackerel” (French slang for pimp), is accused of supplying women to the orgies. He said outside court yesterday that the women had “travelled of their own accord”.
Other defendants include three local businessmen, a Lille lawyer, Emmanuel Riglaire and Jean-Christophe Lagarde, once the head of detectives in northern France. The businessmen – who paid for the parties – are accused of trying to ingratiate themselves with the man that they believed would be the next President of the Republic. All deny the charges.
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s defence is that he could not have been guilty of pimping because he did not know that the women were prostitutes. He thought that they were willing participants at “soirées libertines” – or wife-swapping parties. One of the young women told investigating magistrates that she entered an orgy in Paris to find DSK being “looked after by seven or eight women”. If this was a wife-swapping party, she asked, where were all the other partners?
The three presiding judges ruled last night that the trial should continue but agreed to reconsider the defence arguments at the end of the scheduled three weeks of hearings. The unwilling star of the show, Mr Strauss-Kahn, 65, managed to avoid the media spotlight on the first day by entering the court through an underground car park. His first big moment on stage will come when he takes the stand a week today.
The former French Finance Minister and IMF chief sat in the first row of the 14 defendants yesterday. He was accused of “helping, assisting and protecting the prostitution” of seven women in several countries “between 29 March 2008 and 4 October 2011”. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to €1.5m.
All other attempts to prosecute Mr Strauss-Kahn for alleged sexual misconduct since he was arrested in a New York hotel in 2011 have failed or been settled out of court.
His conviction in the Lille case is far from certain. The judges must decide whether DSK was not just a participant in the orgies (something he does not deny) but that he also helped to organise them.
He and 12 of the other defendants are accused of “aggravated pimping in an organised group”. Under French law, any action which furthers prostitution can be considered as pimping. The other defendants include Dominique Alderweireld, the owner of sex clubs in Belgium close to the French border. Mr Alderweireld, known as “Dodo la Saumure” or “Dodo the Mackerel” (French slang for pimp), is accused of supplying women to the orgies. He said outside court yesterday that the women had “travelled of their own accord”.
Other defendants include three local businessmen, a Lille lawyer, Emmanuel Riglaire and Jean-Christophe Lagarde, once the head of detectives in northern France. The businessmen – who paid for the parties – are accused of trying to ingratiate themselves with the man that they believed would be the next President of the Republic. All deny the charges.
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s defence is that he could not have been guilty of pimping because he did not know that the women were prostitutes. He thought that they were willing participants at “soirées libertines” – or wife-swapping parties. One of the young women told investigating magistrates that she entered an orgy in Paris to find DSK being “looked after by seven or eight women”. If this was a wife-swapping party, she asked, where were all the other partners?
