Dominique Strauss-Kahn is again in the news, and not as a candidate for the French presidency, something he was on his way to becoming before the world of prostitution fell down on his head.
The civil suit against DSK, calling for him to pay damages and costs, is underway in New York City, where the hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who was unable to sustain a criminal charge against him for sexual aggression, is now pursuing her civil rights.
The lawyers of DSK are arguing today that he is immune from prosecution because of his diplomatic passport issued by the UN while he was head of the International Monetary Fund. Immunity for high grade diplomats and other high-ranking international bureaucrats, is covered by the 1947 UN International Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of Special Agencies.
According to DSK’s lawyers, he did not argue for immunity successfully during his criminal trial in NYC because he wanted to defend himself against the false allegations.
The judge in the civil trial seemed today to take the position, a common one in law, that the immunity existed only for activities carried out during the course of his functions for the IMF and would not apply to personal activities.
In addition, the United States has never ratified the Convention, placing the question of immunity for acts carried out in the US even more problematic.
Diallo has contended that she was forced to offer a fellation to DSK in his Sofitel hotel room in NYC, and he has admitted that there was a brief “inappropriate” sexual encounter but that it was consensual.
The NCY civil case judge has said that he will make a decision about the immunity question rapidly. If DSK is found to have immunity from prosecution, the Diallo affair will be over.
BUT, meanwhile, in France, DSK has been preliminarily indicted for “aggravated pimping in an organized band” by a French judge in relation to a prostitution call-girl ring that was run out of a Carlton Hotel in Lille in northern France. This has come to be known in France as “the Carlton Affair.”
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have said that DSK is innocent of all the charges levied against him in the Carlton Affair and they plan to appeal his being indicted. They are arguing that the Affair is a simple case of loose morals (alleged to have occurred in Paris and Washington) and has nothing to do with pimping or organizing a call girl ring. His lawyers are also saying that DSK is being hounded because of his notoriety in the Diallo NYC case, as well as for political reasons.
DSK is free on a 100,000 Euro bail (US$ 135,000). He is also under judicial control and may not talk to any of the other accused in the Carlton Affair, the civil parties, witnesses, or the media. His is, however, free to travel and may leave France.
Because he has been preliminarily indicted, DSK’s lawyers will now have access to the full judicial file and will be better able to prepare his defense. The negative side of the preliminary indictment is that DSK will once again be under extreme media scrutiny.
The examination by the French judge of the DSK role in the Carlton Affair will now get underway and may take as much a one year. The real indictment, under French law, will occur at the end of the judge’s examination of the case, and will either release DSK or accuse him formally of the charges being brought against him.
A renowned French newspaper, Le Monde, has gained possession of some of the testimony that DSK gave to the judge before his preliminary indictment. In the parts printed by Le Monde, DSK refers to the women as “girls,” “friends,” the little ones,” and also as the “material” (e.g., gifts).
Most were recognized as prostitutes, in text messages between two other suspects in the Carlton Affair. DSK’s lawyers said he used such words because it was easier than listing the women’s names each time he referred to them.
The women participated, according to the Le Monde transcript, in exchange and other sexual parties in Paris, Washington and Belgium, parties which were carefully organized by text messages that implicate DSK. Some of the women were also interviewed by the judge and, according to Le Monde, talked about bestial and violent encounters that were not usual in the world of escorting and call girls.
One thing the judge must now establish is that DSK knew the women were paid, i.e., prostitutes. That would make his indictment probable. According to Le Monde, DSK told the judge that in retrospect, he was “naive.”
DSK’s lawyers have not denied that they consider DSK a libertine, someone with loose morals, but they add that this is not a crime under the French penal code.
So, dear readers, as this affair progresses, you will have the background needed to understand its nuances.
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