Dominique Strauss-Kahn will on Tuesday hear what punishment, if any, prosecutors seek against him on pimping charges, after two ex-prostitutes dropped a civil suit against the former IMF chief.
Prosecutor Frederic Fevre requested one year in prison for one of Strauss-Kahn's 13 fellow accused, a brothel owner known as "Dodo the Pimp", and a series of suspended sentences and hefty fines for a group of friends accused of running a prostitution ring.
"This was not a mafia network that was dismantled," said Fevre, but a group of friends trying to "satisfy egos, ambitions and quite simply, physical desires."
Strauss-Kahn was charged with procuring prostitutes for sex parties in Paris, Brussels and Washington, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
However the 65-year-old steadfastly denied knowing the women brought by his friends to the orgies were prostitutes, in three days of cross-examination last week that revealed his taste for rough sex.
And it is likely Fevre will ask for Strauss-Kahn to be found not guilty and set free.
He was not convinced ahead of the trial that a strong case existed against the former political heavyweight and asked for the charges to be dropped. However he was overruled by investigative judges who sent the case to trial.
There was further relief for Strauss-Kahn on Monday when two ex-prostitutes dropped a civil suit against him, with lawyers saying they lacked enough proof to win the case.
Among the others on trial are a colourful cast of characters including a senior police officer, local businessmen, a prostitute and lawyer.
Many of them form part of a ring known as the "Carlton Affair" in which managers of the luxury Lille hotel set up prostitutes with well-connected locals.
"He was the boss," Fevre said of Dominique Alderweireld, known as "Dodo the Pimp", accused of sending prostitutes from Belgium to the parties just over the border.
Fevre requested a sentence of one year in jail and a fine of 10,000 euros ($11,000) against him.
The Carlton ring is linked to Strauss-Kahn -- who never set foot in the hotel -- as Dodo separately provided prostitutes for the sex parties he attended.
- Saving the world -
Strauss-Kahn finds himself back in the dock four years after his high-flying career and presidential prospects were torpedoed by accusations of sexual assault by a New York hotel maid in May 2011, a case later settled in a civil suit.
The pimping charges against Strauss-Kahn stretch from 2008 to 2011, and lawyers highlighted the fact that after his arrest in New York, there were no more sex parties organised -- which would show he was the pivot around which the orgies took place.
Two friends and co-accused of the economist have testified they kept the fact that the women they brought to the orgies were prostitutes a secret from him.
The ex-prostitutes gave evidence against him, including one woman known as Jade who told the court she was taken by Strauss-Kahn to visit the IMF headquarters in Washington in January 2010.
He argued in court last week that the visit proves he did not think she was a prostitute, and that he was too busy "saving the world" from an unprecedented financial crisis to risk taking a call-girl to his workplace.
- Sexual degradation -
But Jade also said DSK, as he is widely known in France, subjected her to a level of sexual degradation that he would only expect from a prostitute.
In an emotional account, she told the court Strauss-Kahn sodomised her without permission.
"I experienced a penetration without my permission. If I was a libertine, I would at least have been asked if I wanted to do that," she said.
Strauss-Kahn said he did not realise she objected and was "sorry" she experienced it that way.
The silver-haired economist lost his patience when a lawyer for the prostitutes interrogated him on the act.
"I am starting to get fed up," he said, adding people were free to disagree with his proclivities, but that he was not on trial for "deviant sexual practices".
Dominique Strauss-Kahn will on Tuesday hear what punishment, if any, prosecutors seek against him on pimping charges, after two ex-prostitutes dropped a civil suit against the former IMF chief.
Prosecutor Frederic Fevre requested one year in prison for one of Strauss-Kahn’s 13 fellow accused, a brothel owner known as “Dodo the Pimp”, and a series of suspended sentences and hefty fines for a group of friends accused of running a prostitution ring.
“This was not a mafia network that was dismantled,” said Fevre, but a group of friends trying to “satisfy egos, ambitions and quite simply, physical desires.”
Strauss-Kahn was charged with procuring prostitutes for sex parties in Paris, Brussels and Washington, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
However the 65-year-old steadfastly denied knowing the women brought by his friends to the orgies were prostitutes, in three days of cross-examination last week that revealed his taste for rough sex.
And it is likely Fevre will ask for Strauss-Kahn to be found not guilty and set free.
He was not convinced ahead of the trial that a strong case existed against the former political heavyweight and asked for the charges to be dropped. However he was overruled by investigative judges who sent the case to trial.
There was further relief for Strauss-Kahn on Monday when two ex-prostitutes dropped a civil suit against him, with lawyers saying they lacked enough proof to win the case.
Among the others on trial are a colourful cast of characters including a senior police officer, local businessmen, a prostitute and lawyer.
Many of them form part of a ring known as the “Carlton Affair” in which managers of the luxury Lille hotel set up prostitutes with well-connected locals.
“He was the boss,” Fevre said of Dominique Alderweireld, known as “Dodo the Pimp”, accused of sending prostitutes from Belgium to the parties just over the border.
Fevre requested a sentence of one year in jail and a fine of 10,000 euros ($11,000) against him.
The Carlton ring is linked to Strauss-Kahn — who never set foot in the hotel — as Dodo separately provided prostitutes for the sex parties he attended.
– Saving the world –
Strauss-Kahn finds himself back in the dock four years after his high-flying career and presidential prospects were torpedoed by accusations of sexual assault by a New York hotel maid in May 2011, a case later settled in a civil suit.
The pimping charges against Strauss-Kahn stretch from 2008 to 2011, and lawyers highlighted the fact that after his arrest in New York, there were no more sex parties organised — which would show he was the pivot around which the orgies took place.
Two friends and co-accused of the economist have testified they kept the fact that the women they brought to the orgies were prostitutes a secret from him.
The ex-prostitutes gave evidence against him, including one woman known as Jade who told the court she was taken by Strauss-Kahn to visit the IMF headquarters in Washington in January 2010.
He argued in court last week that the visit proves he did not think she was a prostitute, and that he was too busy “saving the world” from an unprecedented financial crisis to risk taking a call-girl to his workplace.
– Sexual degradation –
But Jade also said DSK, as he is widely known in France, subjected her to a level of sexual degradation that he would only expect from a prostitute.
In an emotional account, she told the court Strauss-Kahn sodomised her without permission.
“I experienced a penetration without my permission. If I was a libertine, I would at least have been asked if I wanted to do that,” she said.
Strauss-Kahn said he did not realise she objected and was “sorry” she experienced it that way.
The silver-haired economist lost his patience when a lawyer for the prostitutes interrogated him on the act.
“I am starting to get fed up,” he said, adding people were free to disagree with his proclivities, but that he was not on trial for “deviant sexual practices”.
