'Hotel Carlton affair': Ex-IMF chief takes the stand in French pimping trial

Former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday denied knowing the women he took part in sex parties with were prostitutes, as he took the stand at his French trial on charges of aggravated pimping. The silver-haired economist, whose presidential prospects were torpedoed by an earlier sex scandal, appeared tense as he answered questions from the lead judge. “I committed no crime, no offence,” Strauss-Kahn said in a letter read out to the court by the judge in the northern city of Lille, where topless protesters climbed on his car as he arrived earlier in the day. He also said from the witness stand that the sex parties he attended were few and far between, and that there was none of the “wild activity” of which he is accused.

When you read the criminal complaint you get the impression it was this frenetic activity. But it was four times a year, not more than that. It wasn’t this out-of-control activity.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, addressing the court

Asked by lead judge Bernard Lemaire if he was aware the women at the parties were prostitutes – the crux of the case against him – Strauss-Kahn responded “no”. The 65-year-old former finance minister argues he is merely a libertine who engaged in orgies with consenting adults and did not know the women lavishing their attention on him were paid. Dressed in a dark navy suit, Strauss-Kahn then sat arms folded, occasionally sighing heavily as one of the prostitutes, known as Mounia, took the stand to testify against him, revealing sordid details of the soirees. Lemaire said at the opening of the trial on February 2 that “the court is not the guardian of morals but of the law and its proper application”.

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