DUESSELDORF, Germany, Aug 4 (AFP) - A German artist who was shortlisted to paint Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's official portrait received an 11-month suspended jail sentence Wednesday after a cocaine-fueled orgy with prostitutes.
The state court in the western city of Duesseldorf convicted Joerg Immendorff, a friend of the chancellor's and one of his favorite artists, on 27 counts of cocaine possession based on an incident one year ago.
Police burst into a luxury hotel suite in Duesseldorf to find Immendorff with nine prostitutes and a large amount of narcotics.
A 25-year-old sex worker testified Wednesday before the verdict that she had held an ashtray full of cocaine and a straw so the painter and sculptor could snort the drug more easily.
Police later seized 21.6 grams of white powder in the suite, his apartment and his gallery containing 6.5 grams of pure cocaine.
The 59-year-old Immendorff, who had accompanied Schroeder on state visits to China and Georgia, is expected to be able to keep his post as a professor at the Duesseldorf academy of arts.
State prosecutors had called for a suspended jail sentence and a fine of 150,000 euros (180,000 dollars). The defense had requested a suspended sentence of a few months.
A medical expert who testified during the trial said Immendorff, who is suffering from the debilitating illness Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, was not addicted to cocaine but was "self medicating to treat depression".
Immendorff is one of Germany's most internationally renowned visual artists and a winner of the prestigious Marco Prize of Mexico.
He is also the first German since World War II to be honored in a retrospective in the Polish National Museum in Warsaw.
Before the scandal, Immendorff was considered a likely candidate to paint the official portrait of Schroeder to hang in the chancellery in Berlin when he leaves office.