DSK gag order

According to a judicial source, the ex-French finance minister visited court in the northern city of Douai to seek a lifting of the gagging order and other restrictions that include a 100,000-euro bail bond and ban on speaking to any plaintiffs in the case.

After a closed-door meeting, magistrates said they would deliver their decision on May 30.

"We argued that it (gagging order) was not part of measures outlined in legal texts and that it breached fundamental principles like freedom of speech," Richard Malka, one of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, told Reuters.

Strauss-Kahn's career at the head of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund was cut short when he was arrested in New York in May 2011 on charges, since dropped, of attempting to rape a hotel maid.

After criminal charges were abandoned over concerns about the maid's credibility, she pressed ahead with a civil case. A New York judge rejected Strauss-Kahn's claim of diplomatic immunity earlier this month, allowing the case to move forward.

Strauss-Kahn was placed under formal investigation in March in the separate French case, which had led to the arrest of eight people, including two Lille businessmen and a police commissioner.

If Strauss-Kahn were found guilty on charges of "aggravated organized pimping", he could face up to 20 years in prison.

PS. Please excuse the typos, predictive substitutions and imperfect A.I. as ever,
Ed Epstein
www.edwardjayepstein.com