LILLE, FRANCE ¨C Lawyers for the four prostitutes who participated in sex parties organized for Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Monday they were giving up their claim of damages, saying it would be too hard to prove the pimping charge against the former IMF head.
Strauss-Kahn, 65, is accused of instigating parties he knew involved prostitutes between 2008-2011 in the French city of Lille as well as in Brussels, Paris and Washington.
The announcement was a surprise move on the first day of the final week of trial and suggests that Strauss-Kahn¡¯s defense ¡ª that he had no idea that the women at the parties were prostitutes ¡ª may have been effective.
The case will nevertheless continue against Strauss-Kahn and 13 other defendants, and the women will remain civil parties in the criminal case, said Gerald Laporte, the women¡¯s lawyer.
Strauss-Kahn is charged with pimping, or ¡°procuring with aggravating circumstances,¡± because investigating magistrates say he took a principal role in planning the parties, and that he knew the women who attended them were prostitutes.
¡°The prostitutes have renounced the request of damages and interest against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, reckoning that all the elements making up the crime of aggravated procuring have not been met,¡± Laporte said.
Strauss-Kahn, Laporte said, ¡°didn¡¯t give up¡± during questioning by judges, repeatedly denying knowledge that the women were prostitutes.
Strauss-Kahn was tipped to become French president before being accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel chambermaid in 2011. U.S. criminal charges were subsequently dropped, and the allegations that he participated in a French sex ring centered in the northern French city of Lille emerged later.
If convicted, Strauss-Kahn faces 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €1.5 million ($1.7 million).
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