Despite sometimes-tearful testimony by prostitutes who painted a sordid picture of "beast-like" sex parties, a French court today acquitted former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of "aggravated pimping" charges, the Guardian reports. The 66-year-old Strauss-Kahn, often called simply "DSK" in France, had admitted to the Lille court that he had participated in wild orgies in Paris, Brussels, and DC with other defendants—including a police chief, a lawyer, and hotel managers—from 2008 to 2011. But during his February trial he said that he had no hand in organizing the sex parties and hadn't known the women in attendance were prostitutes: He thought, per the paper, that they were just "libertine."
Strauss-Kahn has been mired in legal proceedings for sex-related crimes for the past four years, first dealing with accusations from a New York hotel maid that he had sexually assaulted her (he reportedly reached a settlement with her in 2012). Today's ruling had been expected; even the French prosecutor had said DSK should be acquitted in the most recent case due to lack of evidence: During closing arguments, Frederic Fevre advised the court it was "working with the penal code, not the moral code," the BBC notes. Verdicts for the other defendants are also expected to be announced today, per the Guardian. (More International Monetary Fund stories.)
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