Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Movement at the station ... Judges messing with the priestly defendants ... Pell-mell ... Elaborate, if eye-glazing, events mark the arrival of the Apple Isle's new CJ ... Slow shuffle at the top of the Federales delayed ... Celebrity fee dispute goes feral ... Dogs allowed in chambers ... Barrister slapped for pro-Hamas Tweets ... India's no rush judgments regime ... Goings on with Theodora ... More >>

Politics Media Law Society


Pale, male and stale ... Trump’s George III revival … Change the channel … No news about George Pell is the preferred news … ACT corruption investigation into the Cossack and Planet Show gets closer to the finishing line … How to empty an old house with a chainsaw ... Read on ... 

This area does not yet contain any content.
Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Rome is burning ... Giorgia Meloni's right-wing populist regime threatens judicial independence ... Moves to strip constitutional independence of La Magistratura ... Judges on the ramparts ... The Osama Almasri affair ... Silvana Olivetti reports ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


The Charities Commission provides details of the staggering amounts of loot in which the College of Knowledge is wallowing ... Little wonder Bell CJ and others are on the warpath ... More >> 

Justinian's Bloggers

Letter from London ... T.S Eliot gets it wrong ... Harry cleans up in a fresh round with Murdoch's hacking hacks ... All aboard Rebekah Brooks' "clean ship" ... Windy woman restrained from further flatulent abuse ... Trump claims "sovereign immunity" to skip paying legal costs of £300,000 ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reports from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"Creative Australia is an advocate for freedom of artistic expression and is not an adjudicator on the interpretation of art. However, the Board believes a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia's artistic community and could undermine our goal of bringing Australians together through art and creativity."

Statement from Creative Australia following its decision to cancel Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as the creative team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale 2026, February 13, 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Damien Carrick ... For 23 years Carrick has presented the Law Report on ABC Radio National ... An insight into the man behind the microphone ... Law and media ... Pursuit of the story ... Pressing topics ... Informative guests ... On The Couch ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

The Saints Go Marching In ... Cash cow has to claw its way back to the LCA's inner sanctum ... Stephen Estcourt cleans up in Mercury settlement ... Amex rides two horses in expiring guarantee cases ... Simmo bins the paperwork ... Attorneys General should not come from the solicitors' branch ... Goings On from February 9, 2009 ... Read more >>


 

 

« Murder at sea | Main | Tbilisi uncorked »
Tuesday
Dec152020

Not him too ...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the alleged rape in New York's Sofitel ... Victim monstered by lawyers ... Elaborate conspiracy theories ... The same old story ... Director General of the IMF blows-up a beautiful political future ... Miss Lumière on a peculiar French penchant 

Yes, him too. Although why anyone should be surprised by the aggressive sexual antics of a Frenchman of a certain age is rather surprising in itself. 

While watching Room 2806: The Accusation on Netflix, Miss Lumière was reminded that France is the nation that brought us the wholesale cultural defence of Roman Polanski after he admitted to drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson's Beverly Hills pad.

There was and has been no attendant quel horreur in relation to Polanski, despite what this four-part documentary series on would-be French president Dominique Strauss-Kahn describes as the birth of the "#MeToo movement".

Strauss-Khan, or DSK as this intellectual darling of the French Left was affectionately called, is given a thorough going over in The Accusation, which is rather satisfying to watch.

Made this year, the series reviews DSK's alleged actions in 2011 (and subsequent events) though the prism of the #MeToo movement generally, and specifically through the eyes of his victims.

Nafissatou Diallo: hotel maid

They are former Sofitel New York hotel maid and Guinean refugee Nafissatou Diallo and writer Tristane Banon (the daughter of a political colleague) who accused him of attempting to rape her in 2002 when she interviewed him. 

Both women bear graphic witness to what a short, oily and powerful man can do, just because he wants to.

Director Jalil Lespert focuses on Diallo, who almost 10 years after being pinned to floor of the Presidential hotel suite and forced into oral sex, remains traumatised.

And why wouldn't she be? DSK got away with it. 

As the series reveals, the justice system works in not so mysterious ways when it comes to power and privilege. 

Aside from his huge popularity in France and abroad (as head of the IMF) DSK also had the advantage of being married to one of the country's richest and most influential media figures, Anne Sinclair. 

Strauss-Kahn: bailed out more than once by Anne Sinclair

She stood by her man, until she could no longer bear the stench, divorcing him after she helped get him off (so to speak). 

But back to matters vile, and justice perverted. 

The series shows how DSK just couldn't help himself, even after he escaped prosecution for the alleged sexual assault and rape of Diallo.

Making use of lurid news footage, Lespert delves into later allegations that DSK was involved in a sex party/prostitution ring operating out of Lille, Paris and Washington.

Throughout, various lawyers, journalists and politicians - including some of DSK's high profile friends - give freely (and disturbingly) of their views. 

Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang mounts a particularly sleazy defence of his old political ally, explaining his behaviour as that of "a sensual man".

DSK sails through it all, punitively untouched - aside from a classic US style "perp walk", a brief stint under (luxury) house arrest and a short, po-faced appearance in a New York courtroom. 

It's a sorry object lesson in how the system doesn't work, and a depressing one, especially if you're a poor black woman (or a young woman, or simply a woman).

While DSK's accusers are given a powerful platform over four increasingly grim episodes, their claims remain just that - voices in the ether.

We learn that DSK is now happily married for the fourth time and busily consulting on various financial projects in Africa and Europe. 

Well may plus ça change. But La Belle France doesn't look quite so belle anymore.

Room 2806: The Accusation is screening now on Netflix. 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Editor Permission Required
You must have editing permission for this entry in order to post comments.