What might the trial throw up for the former IMF head, who else is involved in it, and what is aggravated pimping? Now, Dominique Strauss-Kahn , the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund once tipped as a future president of France, is on trial to face charges for his alleged role in a prostitution ring. The French newspaper Le Monde claims the pages making up the summary of allegations read like a made-for-television movie from the s set in the city of Lille, in which strangers meet from 5 to 7pm to pay for love at reasonably elegant hotels.
He denies the charges, and is expected to say that he had sexual relations with women at libertine parties organised by friends in Paris and Washington, but that he did not realise the women were prostitutes who had been paid for their participation.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is accused of aiding, assisting and protecting the prostitution of seven people between March and October , according to Judge Bernard Lemaire at Lille Criminal Court. Investigators have compiled hundreds of pages of testimony from prostitutes describing orgies Mr Strauss-Kahn and co-defendants were alleged to have organised, mainly at the Carlton Hotel in Lille, near the Belgian border. He is accused of using his business contacts to hire women for sex parties in Paris, Lille and Washington.
In this case, the charge is aggravated because the allegations meet two conditions for being aggravated: many people were sold into sex, and their prostitution was organised by a group of accomplices.
It is not illegal to pay for sex in France, but it is against the law to solicit or run a prostutition business. His nickname derives from the French for mackerel: la Samure is the brine used to cure mackerel, with the fish being a slang term for pimp. He is charged with providing girls to have sex with clients in France — Lille and Paris — and Washington.
