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Sorry - this page has been removed. Strauss-Kahn prosecutor calls for acquittal in pimping trial
(4 months later)
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. A French prosecutor has asked a court to acquit the former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a pimping charge for his role in what investigating magistrates argued was an organised sex ring using prostitutes.
Strauss-Kahn was tipped to become French president before being accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel cleaner in 2011. US criminal charges were subsequently dropped and the allegations that he participated in a French sex ring centred in the northern French city of Lille emerged later.
For further information, please contact: On Monday, two women dropped a civil suit against Strauss-Kahn, with lawyers saying they lacked enough proof to win the case.
The Lille prosecutor’s request highlighted the difficulty of a potential conviction of Strauss-Kahn, 65. The trial is due to finish this week, with closing statements from the defence on Wednesday, but a verdict is not expected immediately.
Investigating magistrates, who originally sent the case against Strauss-Kahn to trial over the objections of the same prosecutor, argued Strauss-Kahn was the instigator of parties involving prostitutes from 2008 to 2011 in Lille, Brussels, Paris and Washington.
The charge of pimping, or “procuring with aggravating circumstances”, was justified, magistrates said, because Strauss-Kahn took a principal role in planning the parties, and knew that the women who attended them were prostitutes.
But during the three-week trial in Lille, Strauss-Kahn consistently maintained he had no idea the women at the sex parties were prostitutes, and that he had not organised the parties himself.