Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and a one-time French presidential hopeful, will stand trial for charges associated with his role in a prostitution ring.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and a one-time French presidential hopeful, will stand trial for charges associated with his role in a prostitution ring.
Strauss-Kahn had asked for charges against him to be dropped, but, in a decision leaked to Le Figaro newspaper, a panel of judges wrote that Strauss-Kahn had “effective and crucial participation in acts of pimping” and the evidence suggests that he “could not have been unaware about these young women’s status.”
Strauss-Kahn has already admitted to attending sex parties in both France and the U.S., but his lawyers have argued that he didn’t know the women involved were prostitutes because they “were all naked at the time.”
The leaked document comes after an investigation into the Carlton Affair, which looked into allegations that Strauss-Kahn organized a prostitution ring in the northern French city of Lille. The document also says that judges believe Strauss-Kahn set up the prostitution ring to “satisfy his sexual needs.”
Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn has at least one supporter, well-known convicted pimp Dominique Alderweireld, who is known as “Dodo la Saumur” (Dodo the brine).
“I think that with his work at the IMF, he had other things to do than organise orgies,” Alderweireld said during a television interview.
Strauss-Kahn, 64, could face up to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty.