12:20 GMT – AFP IS CLOSING THIS LIVE REPORT on the trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn over pimping charges as the ex-IMF chief ends his testimony.
Today Strauss-Kahn was grilled on the use of his “bachelor pad” for orgies, and text messages in which he asked for women to be brought to sex parties. He denied that either proved he was an instigator of prostitution.
DSK has stuck rigidly to his defence that he had no idea the women attending orgies in Paris, Brussels and Washington were paid to be there.
The use of his private apartment in a chic Parisian neighbourhood to host the parties is one of the key reasons investigating judges ordered him to stand trial. The trial continues.
12:00 GMT – Departures – As the court breaks, DSK chats with his lawyer Henri Leclerc. The ex-IMF chief is smiling and seems happy with his two-and-a-half days of hearings.
His lawyers, as previously, decline to comment further before disappearing out the door, suitcase in tow.
11:53 GMT – Court breaks – Strauss-Kahn , sitting on the defendants bench, looks at his watch. He is not expected to be called up to testify again. The court breaks for lunch.
11:35 GMT – ‘Guardian angel’ – After the testimony of “Nid” representative Lemaitre, retired prostitute Jade thanks him for his help, calling him her “guardian angel”.
In Wednesday’s hearing the former sex worker broke down as she described being sodomised by Strauss-Kahn at a hotel in Brussels, without him asking her permission — behaviour she claims indicates he knew she was a prostitute.
11:28 GMT – Dodo the Pimp – Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for the civil plaintiffs, asks Dodo the Pimp what he thinks of Lemaitre’s comments. The Belgian brothel owner argues that he has the right to take 50 percent from prostitutes because “we pay the tax and electricity”.
Asked about the degree of independence of the girls, Dodo responds: “I’m sure of it (that they are independent). It is my conviction and that of judges in Belgium.”
11:21 GMT – ‘Double pimping’ – Earlier the public prosecutor asked Lemaitre if a prostitute can be “independent”. Lemaitre responded by explaining that prostitutes often undergo “double pimping”, with 40 or 50 percent of the cash taken by one pimp and the rest collected by others on the way out.
11:16 GMT – Trauma – Lemaitre paints a grim picture of the consequences of prostitution for the women involved.
“Repeated penetration has terribly traumatic consequences for a woman,” he says. “A woman’s body is not made to be penetrated 10 or 20 times. A woman’s body is made to be respected.”
– ‘Trauma’ of prostitution –
11:08 GMT – Belgian brothels – Lemaitre says Belgium has “sold its soul” because it “closes its eyes” to the multiplication of brothels and hostess bars. Sitting on the defendants bench is Dominique Alderweireld, aka “Dodo the Pimp”, a French-born Belgian brothel owner.
Alderweireld’s lawyer rebuts the comments, saying they are “simplistic”. He maintains that Belgium tolerates brothel houses where prostitutes are better off than in France where they sell their services on the street, out in the cold.
10:47 GMT – Necessary evil – “This trial is a step in touching public opinion so that people stop saying (that prostitution) is a necessary evil or that it is the oldest profession in the world,” the Nid representative continues.
10:43 GMT – ‘Slavery’ – On the subject of pimping, Lemaitre adds: “It’s not far from the slave trade. It puts the individual, family and community in danger. All those involved in prostitution suffer in their personal lives.”
10:35 GMT – Hearing resumes – Bernard Lemaitre, a representative of “Le Mouvement du Nid”, an organisation that supports victims of prostitution, is called to testify. “There is no future in prostitution, no future,” he says.
10:32 GMT – Questions – “Libertine parties, always in the presence of DSK, unspecified dates, the court is not holding back on the question of the apartment,” tweets AFP journalist Marine Laouchez.
– Court breaks –
09:56 GMT – Row – DSK’s 84-year-old lawyer is rowing with the prostitutes’ lawyer, who wants DSK to say what he thinks of the French pimping law. The judge says it has no bearing on the case.
09:48 GMT – Marriage – The court wants to know why DSK hid the existence of the bachelor pad from investigating judges. The former presidential hopeful explains it was because: “I was still married at that time” to a wife of over 20 years, Anne Sinclair. She stuck by him through the New York case, though they divorced in May 2013.
09:41 GMT – ‘Bachelor pad’ – Now the case moves onto Strauss-Kahn’s “bachelor pad” in a chic Parisian suburb. The judge recalls that one of the key reasons the DSK case was sent to trial by investigating judges — despite a request for the prosecution to have charges dropped — is because the use of a private apartment to host prostitutes is key evidence of “pimping”.
DSK explains that he rented the apartment in the name of a friend because as a married, public figure, he needed a “discreet place” to meet political friends and, of course, women.
– DSK’s ‘bachelor pad’ –
09:40 GMT – Reaction – Strauss-Kahn rolls his eyes from time to time as the texts are read out. He maintains that to deduce from these exchanges that he was the main instigator of the sex parties “makes no sense”.
09:39 GMT – ‘Voyeur’ – Paszkowski says he never took part in orgies himself. He was “pleased with his role as voyeur”, which he has said several times is “his thing”.
09:32 GMT – ‘Trauma’ – “We were all traumatised” by the New York arrest of DSK, says Paszkowski as the court tries to establish whether sex parties were held for DSK or happened regardless of whether he was around.
Though the maid charges were subsequently dropped, the accusations cost DSK his job as IMF chief.
09:28 GMT – Key player? – The judge asks why there were no parties between May and October 2011, after DSK’s arrest in New York and before charges were filed against Paszkowski. No DSK, no orgy?
Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on May 14, 2011 after Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at his hotel, accused him of sexually attacking her when he emerged from the shower. He denied the accusations and those charges were later dropped after a court ruled she was an unreliable witness.
09:19 GMT – Baggage – In one text Strauss-Kahn asks his friend who is coming to Washington with women: “Who will you have in your baggage?” DSK insists there is no indication that he means prostitutes.
09:05 GMT – Texts – DSK is called up to explain 37 SMS messages sent to Paszkowski, in which he asks him to bring “girls”, sometimes referring to them as “equipment”. Strauss-Kahn argues he meant libertines, not prostitutes. Sniffing, Strauss-Kahn seems to be fighting a cold.
08:56 GMT – Payment – “I would never have thought they would have paid to have girls,” explains Virginie, to justify why she wasn’t suspicious of her then boyfriend Paszkowski and his friends David Roquet and DSK.
08:52 GMT – First witness – Joel Specque is called up first as a witness but is then told he will be heard at the end of the morning. Instead it’s Virginie Dufour, ex-partner of businessman and DSK friend Fabrice Paszkowski, who will kick off.
– Hearing begins –
08:47 GMT – Court scene – Joel Specque is sat on the public benches. Ex-prostitutes Mounia and Jade are also in the courtroom on the side of the civil plaintiffs. DSK seems relaxed as he chats to the civil parties while one of his lawyers, Henri Leclerc, speaks to the public prosecutor.
08:44 GMT – Programme – Today the court will look at the third trip to Washington, the night at the Hermitage Gantois hotel in Lille and DSK’s “bachelor pad” on Iena Avenue in Paris, as well as hearing from Joel Specque, a retired police officer.
The hearing will also focus on who paid for it all — DSK’s friends allegedly claimed thousands of euros in company expenses to pay for prostitutes and orgies.
08:35 GMT – Preparation – Dressed today in a red tie and dark jacket, DSK walks around the courtroom reading some notes, with the hearing due to kick off shortly.
08:32 GMT – Tinted windows – As on previous mornings, Strauss-Kahn has arrived in his black car with tinted windows, driving directly to the underground car park of the Palais de Justice.
– DSK arrives –
08:28 GMT – Libertine case – Throughout the two days of testimony DSK has stuck rigidly to his argument that he was unaware that the women who attended his sex parties were prostitutes. The self-professed libertine claims he believed the women involved were like-minded swingers.
The court has heard lurid details from sex workers about the orgies, including tearful accounts of unwanted sexual acts.
08:21 GMT – Recap – A reminder of Wednesday’s hearing before we kick off with another day of courtroom drama: Strauss-Kahn lashed out at accusations that he sodomised a woman without asking her permission, saying he was not on trial for “deviant” acts. He said the idea that his preference for such practices indicated he procured prostitutes was “absurd”.
For a second day, the court picked apart sex parties attended by DSK in Paris, Brussels and Washington in a bid to uncover whether he arranged for prostitutes to attend.
While prostitution in itself is legal in France, encouraging and organising its practice is considered to be procuring and can carry a prison sentence.
08:03 GMT – WELCOME TO AFP’S LIVE REPORT on the trial of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on pimping charges.
The 65-year-old is expected to appear for a third day of testimony at the Palais de Justice in Lille where he stands trial with 13 others. He could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty on charges of procuring prostitutes as part of an organised group.