18:36 GMT – AFP IS CLOSING ITS LIVE REPORT on the first day of the trial of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on pimping charges. Here’s a quick round-up of today’s events:
— The trial of DSK on charges of “aggravated pimping” opened in Lille, four years after a sex scandal cost him his job and a shot at the French presidency.
— The disgraced 65-year-old appeared in court along with 13 other defendants. He is accused of being at the centre of a vice ring that hired prostitutes for sex parties in Brussels, Paris and Washington.
“You are accused of aiding and abetting the prostitution of seven persons between March 29, 2008 and October 4, 2011, and of hiring and encouraging the prostitution of these same persons,” judge Lemaire told a besuited Strauss-Kahn.
— The trial kicked off with a request for the hearings of ex-prostitutes to take place behind closed doors, which Lemaire rejected after a brief deliberation.
— A separate request to have the trial declared invalid, over allegations investigations were secretly carried out before the opening of an official inquiry was rejected, leaving the three-week trial to continue.
18:35 GMT – Hearing ends – That brief appearance by the former IMF chief marks the end of the first day of his pimping trial. The court rises and all parties are called to return tomorrow at 9:30 am.
18:22 GMT – DSK speaks – Strauss-Kahn is asked to stand for the first time. He maintains that he never met co-accused Dodo and Kojfer. “I saw them for the first time today,” he says.
Did he go to the Carlton Hotel, where the sex parties took place? “Never,” he replies before returning to his seat.
18:11 GMT – Yawning – “The court is not the guardian of moral order but that of the law and its right application,” says presiding judge Bernard Lemaire.
Dominique Alderweireld — Dodo the Pimp — along with some of the other defendants, is looking weary and fails to repress a big yawn, notes AFP’s Benjamin Massot from the courthouse.
The court is now hearing details of how the accused knew each other and met.
17:54 GMT – Request rejected – The court reaches a decision and rejects the request to quash the case. The “Carlton Affair” trial will go ahead, with Strauss-Kahn expected to take to the stand to give evidence on February 10.
17:17 GMT – Case ‘ill-founded’ – Public prosecutor Frederic Fevre disagrees that the case should be annulled, saying the request is “unacceptable” and “ill-founded”. The hearing is again suspended to consider the arguments.
16:53 GMT – ‘Phantom inquiry’ – Jerome Pianezza, lawyer for co-accused Emmanuel Riglaire, argues that “a piece of the puzzle is missing” and brands the investigation “a pirate inquiry, a phantom inquiry”.
16:37 GMT – ‘Deliberate misreading’ – Lawyers for the accused continue to plead for the case to be annulled, AFP’s Benjamin Massot reports.
Sorin Margulis, lawyer for Dominique Alderweireld — aka “Dido the Pimp” — tells the court: “There has been a deliberate misreading of the case. We are not on an equal footing and that would not make for a fair trial.”
– Trial ‘unfair’ –
16:18 GMT – Freemasons – The case now being heard involves a ring of businessmen and police — connected through freemasonry — setting up sex parties in luxury hotel rooms.
16:15 GMT – Assault claims – Soon after the New York maid case came to light, French writer Tristane Banon lodged a complaint against Strauss-Kahn for an alleged sexual assault in 2003. She later dropped the charges after a court said the incident happened too long ago.
16:12 GMT – Background – This is of course not the first time Strauss-Kahn has faced legal woes. He was arrested in New York on May 14, 2011, as his plane was about to take off for France after hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of sexually attacking her.
He denied the accusations and was held in prison for four days before being placed under house arrest for seven weeks pending a hearing. But in August 2011 the charges were dropped against him after a court ruled she was an unreliable witness.
The Guinean maid filed a civil suit against him which was settled in December 2012 and reported to be in excess of $1.5 million (1.3 million euros).
15:51 GMT – DSK texting – Strauss-Kahn, still sitting on the defendant’s bench, seems preoccupied with his mobile phone, texting away as his lawyers argue for his case to be thrown out of court
15:39 GMT – Star lawyer – DSK’s 84-year-old lawyer Henri Leclerc — a heavyweight in France — takes the stand to back a request for the case to be declared invalid.
15:33 GMT – Inquiry ‘bias’ – A lawyer for Lagarde, the police commissioner on trial with DSK, argues that investigating judges have a caricature of Strauss-Kahn in their office, proving “bias”.
Olivier Bluche demanded the case be made invalid. He tells the court: “We are sure of corruption of the rule of law,” due to an “unofficial” inquiry. He says the chances of a fair trial for his client have been “buried”.
15:27 GMT – ‘Secret probe’ – Lawyers are now arguing for the case to be thrown out, alleging that a secret probe took place months before the start of an official inquiry.
Tweeting from the courthouse, AFP’s Fran Blandy explains: “This forms part of argument that DSK was victim of a political conspiracy theory, some still believe was set up in NY hotel maid case.”
15:25 GMT – Open case – The court rejects the case put by former prostitutes who are to be questioned in the pimping trial of Strauss-Kahn and others to have proceedings held in private.
“The court rejects the in-camera demand,” the presiding judge tells the court. He deems that the individuals who have launched a civil case in relation to the Carlton Affair still have “the choice not to express themselves”.
The judge says they have the option of confirming or otherwise their statements or responding only to the questions they want, not those which might be “detrimental to their dignity”.
15:04 GMT – COURT REJECTS IN-CAMERA REQUEST
14:48 GMT – Summary – To recap if you’re just joining us, ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn is on trial for charges of “aggravated pimping”, accused of procuring prostitutes for sex parties as part of an international vice ring.
It comes four years after a separate sex scandal, involving a maid at a New York hotel, cost the French presidential hopeful his job.
While he admits to being a “libertine” who enjoys orgies, DSK strongly denies knowing that the women at the parties were paid — the argument on which his case centres.
The charge against him is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million). Thirteen others were facing trial on similar charges but the pimping charge was earlier dropped against one defendant, Jean-Luc Vergin.
14:41 GMT – Deliberations – Several lawyers oppose the request for in-camera proceedings and the hearing is suspended for deliberation.
14:37 GMT – Counter-argument – One lawyer argues that the prostitutes have already given many interviews in the press with sordid details of sex parties attended by Strauss-Kahn and others… in other words, it’s a little late for protecting their reputations.
14:32 GMT – Witness protection – AFP’s Fran Blandy, by way of explanation, tweets: “The prostitutes who attended sex parties with #DSK and others have quit the industry and don’t want all sordid details dragged through press.”
14:25 GMT – Prostitutes – The prosecutor says he “understands” how hard this has been for ex-prostitutes, as young girls dream of growing up to be “princesses not prostitutes”.
He hopes to “reconcile respect for the dignity of individuals with the legitimate right of our citizens to information”.
14:20 GMT – In camera – First a lawyer for the former prostitutes involved in the case is asking for the trial to take place in camera. Public prosecutor Frederic Fevre supports the request to have the case heard partially behind closed doors.
– Ex-prostitutes request privacy –
14:04 GMT – Pleading ignorant – The defence against Strauss-Kahn has never changed: he is a self-professed libertine but knew nothing of the fact that the women participating in the sex parties were prostitutes.
13:57 GMT – Case for dismissal – Even prosecutors have been divided over whether there is enough evidence to prove DSK was more pimp than casual consumer. In 2013 state prosecutor Frederic Fevre called for the charges to be dropped, but investigating judges overruled him and ordered DSK to stand trial.
The court will deal today with whether the case should go ahead as well as a request for hearing the trial behind closed doors.
13:39 GMT – Charge dropped – Presiding judge Bernard Lemaire then cites the charges against each of the accused. One of them, Jean-Luc Vergin, is no longer charged with pimping.
13:31 GMT – Role call – After opening the hearing, the presiding judge lists one by one the names of the 14 defendants and their lawyers.
Around 300 journalists are crammed into the courtroom of the Palais de Justice, among the representatives of around 20 foreign media outlets.
13:19 GMT – Trial opens – Both Strauss-Kahn and “Dodo the Pimp” — Dominique Alderweireld — sit arms folded among the co-accused as the judge opens the trial.
The first to take the stand among the 14 accused will be the Carlton’s former public relations manager Rene Kojfer, alleged to have organised prostitutes for “well-connected men” at his hotel.
He is also accused of doing publicity for Alderweireld, who owns a string of brothels near the French border in Belgium, where rules are more lax. Alderweireld is accused of procuring prostitutes for Kojfer, some of whom were employed at the orgies attended by DSK.
13:12 GMT – Police complaint – The criminal court in Lille should, before the hearing proper begins, resolve some procedural issues. The lawyer of police officer Jean-Christophe Lagarde has requested his case is dropped, claiming that an “unofficial” investigation was carried out in June 2010, well before the opening of the preliminary inquiry in February 2011.
13:12 GMT – Crux of case – To recap: a probe into a vice ring revealed some of the prostitutes involved had been paid to participate in orgies attended by Strauss-Kahn, who was charged alongside 13 others with “aggravated pimping”
He admits to being a “libertine” who enjoys orgies but has steadfastly denied knowing the women were paid.
This is the crux of the case against him: whether he knew the women lavishing their attention on him were prostitutes and whether he played a role in organising their presence.
13:07 GMT – Nervous pacing – Inside the courtroom DSK sits with his arms crossed, next to his friend Pazskowski, on the defendants’ bench.
Earlier he was pacing up and down in courtroom, hands in pockets, ahead of the trial, to kick off with mostly procedural issues, says AFP’s Fran Blandy, tweeting from the courthouse.
“They say when nervous imagine those around you naked… for many in this courtroom that shld not be a problem,” adds @franblandy.
13:00 GMT – DSK arrives – Strauss-Kahn arrives with Fabrice Paszkowski, also charged with aggravated pimping, reports AFP’s Nicolas Gubert. With them is Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a former senior police detective, accused of organising sex parties to curry favour with Strauss-Kahn.
12:56 GMT – Dodo the pimp – Next to arrive is Belgian brothel owner Dominique Alderweireld, a convicted pimp known as “Dodo la saulure”, a reference to the brine used for mackerel, which is French slang for pimp. He is charged with procuring prostitutes and money laundering.
“Here we go! That’s an understatement!” says Alderweireld in the middle of a throng of journalists. “I will try to tell the truth — it’s already not bad!” he adds.
– DSK and ‘Dodo the Pimp’ –
12:44 GMT – Defendant ‘calm’ – Rene Kojfer, a former Carlton Hotel public relations officer and one of the key accused, has arrived at the Palais de Justice in Lille where the trial is taking place, reports AFP’s Benjamin Massot. The defendant is accompanied by his lawyer Hubert Delarue, who announces: “We’re calm.”
12:39 GMT – ‘Aggravated pimping’ – What exactly are the charges against DSK? The French charge of “proxenetisme aggrave” can be translated as “aggravated pimping in an organised group”. While prostitution is legal in France, “proxenitisme”, or procuring, is not.
So-called pimping has a much wider scope in the eyes of the law than its usual definition of acting as an agent for prostitutes, and includes profiting from and aiding and abetting prostitution.
12:33 GMT – Trial objections – Before getting down to the nitty-gritty, however, the court will deal with a host of procedural applications, including a request for the trial to take place behind closed doors from one of the prostitutes testifying.
The court will also consider a request to have the trial declared invalid, over allegations investigations were secretly being carried out for eight months before the opening of an official enquiry.
– ‘Aggravated pimping’ charge –
12:29 GMT – Sexual content – What can we expect? Lurid details of group sex and high-end prostitution are pretty much guaranteed to emerge during the trial, with Strauss-Kahn taking the stand alongside a colourful cast of characters including luxury hotel managers, police, freemasons and brothel owner “Dodo the Pimp”.
A probe into the alleged vice ring found that DSK was the “king of the party”, and prosecutors will seek to prove his mere presence gave rise to prostitution as his entourage organised the evenings according to his schedule.
Those attending the gatherings described “carnage with a heap of mattresses on the floor”, with DSK the focus of several women at a time in an atmosphere more of “pure sexual consummation” than a typical swinger’s party.
12:20 GMT – ‘Carlton Affair’ – Some background to begin with: Strauss Kahn, ex-head of the International Monetary Fund and once tipped to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy as French president, saw his career implode in 2011 when he was paraded handcuffed in front of the world’s cameras after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault.
Those criminal charges were later dropped and the case settled in a civil suit, but six months later his name cropped up in an investigation into a prostitution ring in northern France and Belgium.
That case, known as the “Carlton Affair” after one of the swish hotels in Lille where local businessmen and police officials organised sex parties, is the one that comes to court today in a trial expected to last three weeks.