Dominque Strauss-Kahn sues Le Monde over leaked interrogation records
Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves a French police station yesterday in Lille, northern France after two days of questioning about a series of sex parties
France’s disgraced political titan Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced today he will sue the Paris daily Le Monde after it published the confidential statements he made during police interrogations last month, the newspaper reports.
The newspaper today published the contents of text messages and transcripts used as evidence in the case against Strauss-Kahn, who was charged Monday with “aggravated pimping.” He maintains his innocence.
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Strauss-Kahn was held for two days last month by police in the French city of Lille for questioning in the case. According to Le Monde, leaked confidential records of his statements to police reveal the coded terminology he used to describe women suspected to be prostitutes: “material,” “girls,” “luggage,” “little ones,” “friends.”
Judicial investigators suspect the Pas-de-Calais industrial magnate Fabrice Paszkowski, a friend of Strauss-Kahn, repeatedly organized sexual parties for Strauss-Kahn involving prostitutes at times and places to suit his busy travel schedule: high-end American hotels, dance parties in the Belgian countryside, Paris bachelor pads.
As he told judges in Lille, there were “luncheons and diners that sometimes had more intimate themes” or were “soirée[s] for couples seeking collective sexual activity.”
A text message from Strauss-Kahn to Paszkowski given to Le Monde reads: “Do you want (can you) come see a magnificent, naughty club in Madrid with me (and material) on 4 July?”
During interrogation on Feb 21, Strauss-Kahn told judges: “The word material refers to a person of the feminine gender. It is […] unfitting and inappropriate.”
Asked if he knew the women were prostitutes, DSK answers: “In reflecting on it now, I think I was naïve.”
Following today’s publication of the Strauss-Kahn’s statements, three of his lawyers, Henri Leclerc, Frédérique Baulieu and Richard Malka, announced they would sue: “The dailyLe Monde did not hesitate to publish, in a truncated manner since they were fragmented, selected passages from the records of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s testimony of which one may ask how they so opportunely made their way” to the newspaper, they said. “Mr. Strauss-Kahn will file a suit in the coming days as a result of this manifest violation of his rights.”
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The British chapter of the animal rights organization Peta today announced, surely in jest, that they wanted Strauss-Kahn to be spokesman for a campaign calling for the neutering of cats and dogs.
“The world stops and listens when they hear the name 'Dominique Strauss-Kahn' and anything related to sex, so we think that by becoming PETA’s Desexing Ambassador, Mr. Strauss-Kahn could finally put his notorious reputation to good use and help alleviate the plight of homeless dogs and cats by urging people to spay and neuter their companion animals,” the organization said in a blog post.
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