Photo par Michel Spingler/AP
The former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was cleared on Friday of procuring prostitutes for sex parties in France, putting an end to four years of legal drama that began with a sexual assault charge in a New York hotel room.The trial hinged on sex parties that took place in the midst of the global financial crisis — events Strauss-Kahn described as much-needed "recreational sessions" at a time of intense pressure to steer the world through economic peril. He said he did not know the women who took part were prostitutes."All that for this?" Strauss-Kahn said as he rose to leave the courtroom with his girlfriend and adult daughter. "What a waste." Had he been found guilty he would have faced ten years in jail and a 1.5 million euro ($1.68 million) fine.Strauss-Kahn was one of 14 defendants, all on trial for "aggravated pimping" and all acquitted apart from one — René Kojfer, the former head of public relations at the Carlton Hotel in Lille, where some of the parties took place. The trial sought to determine if the accused were members of a pimping gang or if they did not know the women were prostitutes.The panel of judges ruled that Strauss-Kahn, a one-time French presidential hopeful whose political career was tarnished by the allegations, was not involved in hiring the women or paying them.Strauss-Kahn, 66, always denied the fact that he knew the women were prostitutes. He said he thought they were "libertines," like him.He told the court: "Sleeping with a prostitute is not my concept of a sexual relationship," and that he didn't like to pay for sex, preferring instead "a party atmosphere."Related: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Trial in France Begins With Topless Protesters and Testimony About Wild OrgiesDuring the three weeks of sordidly detailed testimonies and debates, the women involved in the sex parties described sometimes-brutal nights that, they said, were not fun for them at all.One of them who went by the name Jade described the orgies as a scene "from antiquity." When asked whether she had ever spoken to Strauss-Kahn, she replied that she "couldn't really, since he was in my mouth."After he was discharged, Strauss-Kahn reportedly left the court from a back door. Henri Leclerc, one of his lawyers, told press outside the court: "We knew that a contradictory and public debate would show the emptiness of the case."Former hotel PR man Kojfer was given a suspended one year jailed sentence and 2,500 euro ($2,800) fine for his involvement in recruiting prostitutes. Prostitution is currently legal in France, but brothels, pimping and the sale of sex by minors are illegal.Friday's verdict was the last step in four years of legal drama for Strauss-Kahn that began when a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in 2011, killing his ambitions to be French president. That case was later settled out of court.The New York allegations shook France — both because it lost a leading presidential contender and because it splashed allegations about a French public figure's private life onto media worldwide.Related: Prosecutor In Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trial Calls for Pimping Charges to be DroppedIt prompted expectations among many women in France that the country would start holding male politicians accountable for infidelity or other sexual misconduct that had long been ignored.The maid's accusations prompted some French women to go public with accusations of harassment or other sexual mistreatment by Strauss-Kahn in the past, including a writer who tried to sue him for attempted rape but whose case was thrown out because the statute of limitations had expired.In the four years since, however, French attitudes have stayed generally unchanged. The media and public largely shrugged when President Francois Hollande was photographed in 2013 by a gossip magazine taking a scooter to visit his lover, unbeknown to his first lady.The Associated Press contributed to this report.Follow Matthieu Jublin on Twitter @MatthieuJublin
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