French prosecutor calls for Strauss-Kahn to be acquitted in pimping trial

The prosecutor in the trial of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn says he should be cleared of pimping charges. The call, by prosecutor Frederic Fevre, comes after two former prostitutes dropped a civil case against the man once seen as a possible future president of France. Mr Fevre said: “Neither the judicial enquiry nor the hearing” proved that Strauss-Kahn was guilty of procuring prostitutes for sex parties he attended in Paris, Brussels and Washington. He added that, while Strauss-Kahn had testified to having orgies while he was managing the world financial crisis, being “rough” with his sexual “conquests,” and needing sex with exceptional frequency, none of this was illegal.

This was not a mafia network that was dismantled [but a group of friends trying to] satisfy egos, ambitions and, quite simply, physical desires.

Prosecutor Frederic Fevre

Strauss-Kahn’s “notoriety shouldn’t be in any way a presumption of guilt”, he said. During the three-week trial in the French city of Lille, Strauss-Kahn has maintained he did not know the women participating in sex parties were prostitutes. He has also denied he organised the parties. The trial is due to finish this week, but a verdict is not expected immediately and it now seems likely Strauss-Kahn will walk away with a clean record. Mr Fevre requested one year in prison for one of the 13 others accused in the case - Dominique Alderweireld, a brothel owner known as “Dodo the Pimp” - and a suspended sentences and hefty fines for a group of friends accused of running a prostitution ring.

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