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| Find Another Name, Belgian Court Tells DSK Sex Club | Find Another Name, Belgian Court Tells DSK Sex Club |
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| TOURNAI, Belgium — A court in this southwestern Belgian town on Monday ordered a newly opened sex club called the DSK to change its name. The ruling was another legal victory for the man known widely by those initials: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund who faced charges, later dropped, of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in New York in 2011. | TOURNAI, Belgium — A court in this southwestern Belgian town on Monday ordered a newly opened sex club called the DSK to change its name. The ruling was another legal victory for the man known widely by those initials: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund who faced charges, later dropped, of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in New York in 2011. |
| Mr. Strauss-Kahn demanded the name change in a May complaint that accused the club of appropriating his identity without consent for “commercial and parasitical ends” and of causing “unbearable interference with his honor and personal rights.” | Mr. Strauss-Kahn demanded the name change in a May complaint that accused the club of appropriating his identity without consent for “commercial and parasitical ends” and of causing “unbearable interference with his honor and personal rights.” |
| The court ordered the operator of the club, Dominique Alderweireld, to drop “all mention and reference, either direct or indirect, to the name, acronym or image” of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who has been trying to live down his reputation for reckless libertinism and to re-establish himself in France as a serious figure. | The court ordered the operator of the club, Dominique Alderweireld, to drop “all mention and reference, either direct or indirect, to the name, acronym or image” of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who has been trying to live down his reputation for reckless libertinism and to re-establish himself in France as a serious figure. |
| Last week, Le Point, a leading French newsmagazine, published a lengthy report calling Mr. Strauss-Kahn a “phoenix” and relating his disparaging views on the performance of France’s president, François Hollande, a fellow Socialist. | Last week, Le Point, a leading French newsmagazine, published a lengthy report calling Mr. Strauss-Kahn a “phoenix” and relating his disparaging views on the performance of France’s president, François Hollande, a fellow Socialist. |
| Mr. Alderweireld, who is better known by his crime world nickname, Dodo la Saumure, said in an interview after the ruling that he did not mind changing the name of his newest brothel and was considering calling it the I.M.F. Club instead. But he added that he had done nothing to damage Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s already tainted image and had instructed his lawyer in Tournai, Etienne Wery, to appeal Monday’s court decision. | |
| Prostitution is legal in Belgium but proxenetism, or pimping, is not; still, the authorities generally tolerate what are known as “houses of debauchery,” or brothels. Mr. Wery, said that Belgium has more than 3,000 establishments that sell sex, but that only his client “openly acknowledges what he does.” | Prostitution is legal in Belgium but proxenetism, or pimping, is not; still, the authorities generally tolerate what are known as “houses of debauchery,” or brothels. Mr. Wery, said that Belgium has more than 3,000 establishments that sell sex, but that only his client “openly acknowledges what he does.” |
| Mr. Alderweireld’s openness has led to a torrent of legal trouble. He has been arrested repeatedly since opening his first sex club in Lille, in northern France, in 1970, and he is fighting two separate pimping charges in Belgium. He has also been caught up in a long-running French investigation into an alleged prostitution ring at the Hotel Carlton in Lille, which provided women for sex parties attended by Mr. Strauss-Kahn in France and the United States. | Mr. Alderweireld’s openness has led to a torrent of legal trouble. He has been arrested repeatedly since opening his first sex club in Lille, in northern France, in 1970, and he is fighting two separate pimping charges in Belgium. He has also been caught up in a long-running French investigation into an alleged prostitution ring at the Hotel Carlton in Lille, which provided women for sex parties attended by Mr. Strauss-Kahn in France and the United States. |
| Mr. Strauss-Kahn has acknowledged attending the parties, but said he did not know the women were being paid. Mr. Alderweireld, who has been charged with providing some of the prostitutes, said several women who worked in his clubs in Belgium had attended orgies with Mr. Strauss-Khan but had done so without his knowledge. The case is due to go to court next year. | Mr. Strauss-Kahn has acknowledged attending the parties, but said he did not know the women were being paid. Mr. Alderweireld, who has been charged with providing some of the prostitutes, said several women who worked in his clubs in Belgium had attended orgies with Mr. Strauss-Khan but had done so without his knowledge. The case is due to go to court next year. |
| Mr. Alderweireld insisted that the name of his new club, the DSK, which opened in April, was not inspired by Mr. Strauss-Kahn or his appetites but was simply an abbreviation of his own first name plus Sex and Klub, the Dutch spelling of club. Dutch is widely spoken in Belgium, though not by him or by many other people in Tournai, which is in the French-speaking part of the country. | Mr. Alderweireld insisted that the name of his new club, the DSK, which opened in April, was not inspired by Mr. Strauss-Kahn or his appetites but was simply an abbreviation of his own first name plus Sex and Klub, the Dutch spelling of club. Dutch is widely spoken in Belgium, though not by him or by many other people in Tournai, which is in the French-speaking part of the country. |
| In his campaign for rehabilitation, Mr. Strauss-Kahn has been aggressive. His Paris lawyer, Jean Veil, announced in May that he would go to court over “Welcome to New York,” a film in which Gérard Depardieu plays a sex addict who sexually assaults a hotel maid. | In his campaign for rehabilitation, Mr. Strauss-Kahn has been aggressive. His Paris lawyer, Jean Veil, announced in May that he would go to court over “Welcome to New York,” a film in which Gérard Depardieu plays a sex addict who sexually assaults a hotel maid. |
| Mr. Strauss-Kahn also sued over “Beauty and the Beast,” a novel written by a former lover, Marcela Iacub, who described him as “half man, half pig.” The court declined to ban the book but awarded damages and required that each copy contain an insert informing readers that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s privacy had been violated. | Mr. Strauss-Kahn also sued over “Beauty and the Beast,” a novel written by a former lover, Marcela Iacub, who described him as “half man, half pig.” The court declined to ban the book but awarded damages and required that each copy contain an insert informing readers that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s privacy had been violated. |
| Mr. Strauss-Kahn now lives in Marrakesh, Morocco, but he appears regularly in Paris and works as a financial consultant to governments and banks, and as an investment banker. | Mr. Strauss-Kahn now lives in Marrakesh, Morocco, but he appears regularly in Paris and works as a financial consultant to governments and banks, and as an investment banker. |
| Prosecutors in New York dropped charges against him in 2011 after they became concerned about the truthfulness of his accuser, a hotel housekeeper named Nafissatou Diallo. Mr. Strauss-Kahn later reached an out-of-court settlement with her, sparing him having to testify in a civil trial. He also prevailed against a French author, Tristan Banon, who said he had tried to rape her in 2003. The prosecutor dropped that case after deciding that the evidence suggested a less serious offense with a shorter statute of limitations that had already run out. | Prosecutors in New York dropped charges against him in 2011 after they became concerned about the truthfulness of his accuser, a hotel housekeeper named Nafissatou Diallo. Mr. Strauss-Kahn later reached an out-of-court settlement with her, sparing him having to testify in a civil trial. He also prevailed against a French author, Tristan Banon, who said he had tried to rape her in 2003. The prosecutor dropped that case after deciding that the evidence suggested a less serious offense with a shorter statute of limitations that had already run out. |
| Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 65, who is highly regarded in France as an economist, has been helped in his quest for redemption by the travails of President Hollande, whose deep unpopularity has left many French voters pining for an alternative leader. A survey of French opinion earlier this year put Mr. Strauss-Kahn at the top of a list of 14 French political figures whom voters would prefer to see in the Élysée Palace instead of Mr. Hollande. | Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 65, who is highly regarded in France as an economist, has been helped in his quest for redemption by the travails of President Hollande, whose deep unpopularity has left many French voters pining for an alternative leader. A survey of French opinion earlier this year put Mr. Strauss-Kahn at the top of a list of 14 French political figures whom voters would prefer to see in the Élysée Palace instead of Mr. Hollande. |