PARIS
The testimonies of defendants and witnesses at the trial of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, dubbed by the media as DSK, started on Tuesday.
DSK, an economist and one-time French presidential favorite, faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to €1.5 million for charges of "aggravated pimping in an organized group."
This involved allegedly procuring prostitutes for luxury sex parties in Paris, Lille, Brussels, Washington and New York between 2008 and 2011.
He is involved in the case along with other 14 people -- 12 men and two women -- including a hotel owner, a lawyer, businessmen, police and well-known barrister Dominique Alderweireld, nicknamed Dodo la Saumure.
The case, dubbed the Carlton Affair after the Lille hotel where most of the sex parties took place, is due to last three weeks.
Former public relations manager of the Carlton Hotel, Rene Kojfer, was the first defendant to take to the stand in the second day of the trial.
The 74-year-old is accused of running a high-end prostitution ring that organized sex parties for local businessmen and police officials, often in his hotel, and procuring prostitutes for members of Strauss-Kahn's entourage.
As he took to the stand, Kojfer denied the charges by arguing that he was just doing a service for his friends by introducing them to prostitutes he knew.
He also said he suffered from alcoholism because of his ex-wife who used to beat him.
Two former prostitutes, believed to participate in DSK's sex parties, using fake names Jade and Sonia, gave emotional testimonies. They explained how they were forced to sell themselves due to shortage of money.
An attempt by public defense lawyers on Monday, including the prostitutes' civil action lawyer, to have the trial heard behind closed doors was rejected.
Jade said that she met Kojfer at a Belgian brothel owned by Dodo la Saumure where she was sent to DSK's sex parties.
Prosecutors claim DSK took part in, and may have organized, the luxurious sex parties where female escorts were paid to have sex with guests, including himself.
He has admitted having sex at the parties, but said he did not know it was being paid for. He also claimed that he had never set foot in the Carlton.
Prostitution -- the exchange of sexual services for money -- is not illegal in France, but it is against the law to solicit, or to run, a prostitution business.
DSK, who was driven to the courthouse on Monday in a dark-windowed car without stopping to address journalists, will not be in court till he testifies next week.
"I saw them for the first time today," he said about Kojfer and Dodo la Saumure.
Dodo la Saumure has also denied knowing Strauss-Kahn in person, saying, "I’m not part of his world, he has nothing to do with me."
DSK, 65, recently settled a U.S. civil case with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo who had accused him of sexual assault in a case which marked the end of his political career in France.
