Former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn acquitted in pimping trial

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been cleared of pimping charges in a French trial.

The verdict closes four years of legal drama that hinged on sex parties that took place in the midst of the global financial crisis. Ten others were also acquitted.

Mr Strauss-Kahn had told the court the parties were “recreational sessions” and he did not know the women who took part were prostitutes.

In often sordid testimony, the women described sometimes brutal get-togethers.

Allegations against Mr Strauss-Kahn started when a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011. That case was settled out of court.

A panel of French judges issued the verdict, saying there was conflicting testimony against him from seven prostitutes and insufficient evidence that he helped plan the gatherings.

“We cannot impute the role of instigator on someone who exchanged 35 text messages over a period of 22 months,“ one of the judges said.

The trial brings to a close the so-called Carlton Affair, named for the hotel in the northeastern French town of Lille where some of the sex parties were held.

Strauss-Kahn admitted he had attended similar gatherings elsewhere but stressed that they were private, consensual affairs and he could not have known the women were prostitutes as he did not organize the events.

While prostitution and paying for sex aren’t illegal in France, procuring prostitutes for others is.

Strauss-Kahn, who was once the leading candidate to replace former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will now attempt to rebuild his reputation after the lurid revelations that emerged during the trial.

Prostitutes testified in February when the trial began that Strauss-Kahn forced the them into “animal“ sex and were brought to tears by his behaviour.

Strauss-Kahn told the court at the time that he had a right to a private life and that he was being prosecuted for his lifestyle more than anything else.