Wow. If a key part of your defence is that you *only* had 12 orgies in three years, I think it's safe to say the trial is going badly #DSK
— Andrew Hunter Murray (@andrewhunterm) February 10, 2015
Amazing that this guy was *this* close to running one of the most powerful countries in the world. #DSK trial @flabrouillere
— Sedulia Scott (@Sedulia) February 10, 2015
Jade describes seeing DSK on bed covered in women. 'That is not swinging … no one asked my name, just put a hand on my head for fellatio'
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
Things getting graphic here. Jade asked: "Did you speak to #DSK at that point?" No because he was in my mouth."
— Henry Samuel (@H_E_Samuel) February 10, 2015
Jade said she didn't know who DSK was until 'one day I saw him on TV and I said ahhh it's him, but he is clothed!'
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
Strauss-Kahn says 'it has happened 10 times that a woman has offered herself to me. It is not totally unusual for me' #DSK
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
#DSK asked how he came to have sex with stranger in restaurant basement. "I was often in situations where women offered themselves to me."
— Henry Samuel (@H_E_Samuel) February 10, 2015
4.17pm:
Everytime someone says businessman Fabrice Paszkowski's name in court it comes out differently, Pazlevsski, Pshvelski etc. Long day. #DSK
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
#femen says to DSK, it's his turn to be fucked now. pic.twitter.com/DJBflhFTtH
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 10, 2015
Many international media outlets have focused on the former prostitute, Mounia. She was left in tears as she recounted how DSK allegedly smiled during anal sex with her. She said that while she didn't verbally say "no", her gestures should have made it clear that she wanted him to stop.
#DSK on the stand by comic book artist @FBoucq — cameras and recorders banned in the courtroom pic.twitter.com/3lBBUNc1AK
— inti (@landauro) February 10, 2015
DSK said paid no role in organizing sex parties, said paid sex 'horrifies' him, that it wld be too great a risk for a man of his stature
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
"I was one of the world's most powerful men" says #DSK "Many people wanted to please me" #Carlton
— inti (@landauro) February 10, 2015
#DSK fully confident at the stand — unimpressed by the judges — "Vous savez Mr. le président…" waving his hand dismissive #Carlton
— inti (@landauro) February 10, 2015
Line of the day? #DSK: "I don't like to do it with prostitutes. I like it to be a party."
— Henry Samuel (@H_E_Samuel) February 10, 2015
(An artist's sketch of proceedings. Photography has been banned. Photo: AFP)
Judge re #DSK : "Could none of the people have known that you were paid?" Mounia: "I was called in for one reason."
— Henry Samuel (@H_E_Samuel) February 10, 2015
Prostitute tells court how she was crying and gesturing that she didn't want certain practises with #DSK but that he went ahead, "smiling"
— Angelique Chrisafis (@achrisafis) February 10, 2015
Mounia speaks of "brutal" sex with #DSK. "I consented because I needed the money." I left, but the soirée continued with other young girls.
— Henry Samuel (@H_E_Samuel) February 10, 2015
I don't condone #DSK's reckless private life, but I cannot stand the programmed character assassination he's been subjected to #curie #sick
— Laure (@2Laure) February 10, 2015
It just keeps getting better! So juicy! Topless protesters jump on Strauss-Kahn's car http://t.co/278l9D31fl via @TheLocalFrance
— Frenchified for Life (@FabinFrance) February 10, 2015
Now, ex-prostitute Mounia is taking the stand.
#DSK tells court the soirées only happened around 4 times a year. He was v busy 'saving the world' during financial crisis #CarltonLille
— Angelique Chrisafis (@achrisafis) February 10, 2015
Strauss-Kahn's 'pimping' trial dominated by political intrigue http://t.co/Xlbx4zFelj #INFOGRAPHIC #DSK pic.twitter.com/qUuuNIIeN0
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 2, 2015
#DSK: I only had wild sex parties 3 or 4 times a year. People are making me out to be some kind of sex fanatic! http://t.co/PA6JWaZtij
— James Savage (@jamesstockholm) February 10, 2015
(DSK will take the stand at a trial in Lille on Tuesday. Photo: AFP)
Strauss-Kahn appears tired, tense, court hears he refused psychiatric evaluation for the trial, focus for now on career, personality #DSK
— Fran Blandy (@franblandy) February 10, 2015
(DSK arrives in court on Tuesday. Photo: AFP)
The spotlight swings onto the 65-year-old in the second week of the trial in the northern city of Lille which involves 13 other accused, including police, a lawyer, a prostitute and a brothel owner known as "Dodo the Pimp".
Strauss-Kahn will have three days to fend off accusations that he organised for prostitutes to attend sex parties in Paris, Brussels and Washington. He will be face-to-face with two of these women, now retired sex workers, in court.
The former finance minister, known as DSK in France, is expected to argue he is merely a libertine who engaged in orgies with consenting adults and did not know the women lavishing their attention on him were prostitutes.
(AFP's Fran Blandy is live tweeting from the courthouse in Lille. Follow her below)
Strauss-Kahn attended the first day of the trial — luring some 300 journalists to the court — but his name has only been mentioned in passing by the judge, as French court rules forbid defendants from mentioning anyone not in the room.
An ex-prostitute, Mounia, said Monday she was specifically chosen for DSK by one of the businessmen who threw parties for him.
"The sexual relation that you were to have was with Dominique Strauss-Kahn?" asked Bernard Lemaire, the chief of the four judges overseeing the three-week jury-less trial.
"Yes," said Mounia, adding that the businessman, David Roquet, "told me he came to see if I would please this man".
Mounia and another prostitute, known as "Jade", are expected to testify that Strauss-Kahn would be "naive" to have not realised they were professionals.
Court 'not guardian of morals'
The trial is the latest in a series of cases offering a peek behind the bedroom door of a man once tipped as a potential challenger to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
France was stunned when it saw Strauss-Kahn paraded handcuffed in front of the world's cameras after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault in May 2011 — a case that was eventually settled in a civil suit.
Just six months later his name cropped up in an investigation into an alleged vice ring in which the managers and publicist of the luxury Carlton hotel in Lille organised lunchtime sex parties with prostitutes for their friends.
The first section of the trial focused on the so-called "Carlton Affair".
Tears, amusement, and sordid details marked the testimony of key members of the alleged Carlton vice ring — hotel publicist Rene Kojfer and brothel owner Dominique Alderweireld, known as "Dodo the Pimp" — and the prostitutes who worked for them.
READ ALSO: Ten things you need to know about Dodo the Pimp
Lemaire said at the opening of the trial that "the court is not the guardian of morals but of the law and its proper application".
While Strauss-Kahn says he never set foot in the Carlton, and denies knowing the two men, it is they who allegedly provided prostitutes — including "Jade" — to his entourage who threw the sex parties for him.
King of the party?
The charge of "aggravated pimping in an organised group" has been leveled against Strauss-Kahn and these friends, two businessmen and an ex-police commissioner.
Prostitution is legal in France but procuring — the legal term for pimping which includes encouraging, benefiting from or organising prostitution — is a crime.
Judicial sources say Strauss-Kahn was "the king of the party" and that the orgies were organised around his schedule, with his mere presence giving rise to prostitution.
"In these circumstances one isn't always clothed, and I challenge you to tell the difference between a prostitute naked and any other woman naked," Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Henri Leclerc, 84, said in 2011.
The economist is facing 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €1.5 million ($1.7 million).
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