Former IMF chief Strauss-Kahn acquitted in pimping trial

Henri Leclerc (C), lawyer of former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is surrounded by journalists as he leaves after the verdict in the trial in what is called the Carlton Affair, at the courthouse in Lille, northern France, June 12, 2015.[Photo/Agencies]

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.

Strauss-Kahn, 66, was among more than a dozen defendants, including hotel managers, entrepreneurs, a lawyer and a police chief. They were accused of participating in or organizing the collective sexual encounters in Paris, Washington and in the Brussels region in 2008-2011, when Strauss-Kahn was IMF chief and married. Only one, a hotel manager, was convicted in the pimping case.

During the three-week trial in February, the man known in France as DSK never wavered in his insistence that he did not know that the young women at the parties were prostitutes. He said he thought they were simply "libertine."

The sometimes tearful testimony of two prostitutes cast a harsh light on Strauss-Kahn's sexual practices. But they testified that they had never told him directly about their professions.

Other defendants described how they had voluntarily erected a wall of silence around their powerful friend to protect him from embarrassment.

Even the prosecutor, unusually, asked for Strauss-Kahn's acquittal, saying the trial did not back up the charge of aggravated pimping, which requires proof that he promoted or profited from prostitution. However, the prosecutor asked for conviction of the co-defendants who admitted having organized the evenings and paid the girls.