A judge in France has rejected a lawsuit filed by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn which sought to stop the publication of a book written by his former lover Marcela Iacub.
Beauty And Beast (Belle et Bete) outlines Marcela Iacub’s fictionalized account of her affair with DSK.
Although it can now be published, the book will have to include an insert, and Marcela Iacub and her publisher must pay 50,000 euros in damages.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn had complained that he was “horrified” by the book.
“I’ve had enough of people using me. I want one thing only, to be left in peace,” he told reporters after attending a hearing earlier on Tuesday.
DSK was forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund after being accused of raping a hotel maid in New York in May 2011.
A criminal investigation was subsequently dropped by US prosecutors, but in December the 63-year-old paid an undisclosed sum to Nafissatou Diallo to settle a civil claim.
DSK is also being investigated in France as part of probe into allegations that he procured prostitutes for sex parties. He denies any wrongdoing.
Marcela Iacub does not name Dominique Strauss-Kahn in her book, but has publicly stated that he is the protagonist, whom she describes as “half man, half pig”.
“You have had a long list of sexual conquests… of mostly vulgar and unattractive women,” she wrote.
“It is one of the authentic and wonderful traits of the true pig, a form of generosity that you show to all women prepared to receive you.”
DSK told the judge that the book was a “violation of the intimacy of private life”.
His lawyers demanded that the book be banned or, failing that, an insert be added to each of the 40,000 copies of the first print-run, which had been due to go on sale on Wednesday. They did not provide details on what they wanted the insert to say.
They also sought 100,000 euros in damages from Marcela Iacub and her publisher, Stock, as well as a front-page apology from Le Nouvel Observateur, a French magazine which published extracts of the book last week.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s estranged wife, the heiress and former television journalist Anne Sinclair, wrote an open letter to Le Nouvel Observateur asking: “How could you stoop so low?”
“You have given credit to the manoeuvres of a perverse and dishonest women driven by her fascination for the sensational and the lure of money,” she added.
The judge ordered the magazine to pay 25,000 euros in damages and to publish the fact that it had been fined.
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