Strauss-Kahn faces new sexual assault claim - msnbc.com
PARIS A young author filed a sex assault complaint against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday, opening a new and potentially ugly episode in the legal woes of a man once seen as a top contender for the presidency of France.
The lawyer for Tristane Banon, 31, told The Associated Press that he had filed a formal complaint by mail asking prosecutors to open an investigation into her allegation that he tried to rape her in his apartment during a book interview in 2003.
The new allegations are a dizzying turn of events just as the former IMF chief's fortunes seemed to be growing brighter.
With France debating his possible return to presidential politics, Strauss-Kahn swiftly hit back at author Tristane Banon's plans to take him to court, labeling her account "imaginary" and countering with his own plans to file a criminal complaint of slander.
Strauss-Kahn's allies in the opposition Socialist Party say Banon is part of a conspiracy to undermine the 62-year-old former IMF chief. His personal and political future looked suddenly brighter last week after New York prosecutors said they had doubts about the credibility of a maid accusing him of attempted rape in her hotel room.
"Strauss-Kahn's destiny has been snatched from him. All his friends are asking how it is possible that a man who is director of the IMF and a presidential candidate finds himself in prison a few days before he submits his candidacy," said Socialist deputy Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, a close ally of Strauss-Kahn.
"This is clearly a conspiracy against the Socialist Party," he told LCI television.
Francois Hollande, the left's new election frontrunner, was dragged into the imbroglio on Tuesday, when he was asked during a trip to the French Caribbean island of Martinique to respond to Banon's allegation that he had known about the 2003 incident and encouraged her at the time to press charges.
"I really want to put a stop to this controversy, rumors and gossip," Hollande told reporters in Fort-de-France. "This is all becoming quite unbearable."
Banon came forward in the press after weeks of remaining mostly silent, saying in an interview published Tuesday that she was finally trying to clear her own name of suspicion that she had fabricated the accusation.
Banon told French news magazine L'Express that she was tired of hearing "lies and rumors" told about the incident.
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"I can't take it anymore hearing that I must be lying because I haven't filed suit," Banon said.
Strauss-Kahn has labeled Banon's account "imaginary" and threatened to file a criminal complaint of slander against her.
Strauss-Kahn is free on bail in New York, charged with attempted rape and other crimes. He resigned from his job as IMF chief to fight the charges. In a further twist to the saga Tuesday, his New York accuser filed a libel suit against the New York Post after it called her a prostitute.
Strauss-Kahn had been living under house arrest in a $50,000-a-month town house in Manhattan's trendy TriBeCa neighborhood.
Banon said she had waited eight years before filing her complaint because "it's very difficult for any woman in this situation ... and it's even more difficult when you know in advance that it's doomed to failure."
Banon says she described some of the attack in an "autobiographical novel" she published in 2006 called "The Trapezist."
"I left out some sordid details, about his fingers in my mouth, his hands in my underwear after he ripped off my jeans and my bra," Banon said.
"He grabbed my hand, then my arm, I told him to let me go and that's when the fight started. He pulled me towards him, we fell down and fought on the ground for a few minutes," Banon said.
She said she started kicking him with her boots, then finally broke free, ran down the stairs and called her mother from her car.
"I couldn't even drive I was trembling so much," she said.
Lawyer David Koubbi said Banon had been dissuaded from filing charges by her mother, Anne Mansouret, a regional councilor in Strauss-Kahn's Socialist party. Mansouret now says she regrets urging her daughter not to file a complaint after the incident but she feared that taking action against such a powerful Frenchman would affect her daughter's career.
If Banon files her complaint, a prosecutor can conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if there is enough evidence to support charges against Strauss-Kahn. Preliminary charges are followed by a lengthier investigation, sometimes lasting years, to determine if the case should go to trial before a judge.
The same process would apply to the slander complaint against Banon.
A slander charge can be brought against anyone who French prosecutors believe deliberately filed a false complaint with authorities. In Banon's case, an investigation would begin only if her attempted rape complaint is found to be false. A slander charge carries a maximum term of five years in a prison and a 45,000-euro ($65,000) fine.
French prosecutors could decide not to pursue the case against Strauss-Kahn if they find evidence he engaged in forcible sexual contact that fell short of attempted rape. The statute of limitations on sexual assault charges in France is three years, while attempted rape charges can be filed for up to 10 years after the alleged crime.
Before the U.S. assault charges, Strauss-Kahn was considered the Socialist Party's strongest possible candidate to defeat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in France's 2012 presidential election.
Strauss-Kahn has relinquished his passport to authorities in New York and his next court appearance is on July 18.
Story: Reports: Strauss-Kahn sex case heads to dismissal
Some politicians and pundits see Strauss-Kahn, who won plaudits for his stewardship of the International Monetary Fund, as a victim of overzealous American prosecutors and journalists who denied him the presumption of innocence when a maid accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex in his Manhattan hotel room.
"He was crushed, then, by that fraction of the American judicial apparatus that, by putting Dominique Strauss-Kahn in stocks, by humiliating him before the entire world, by ruthlessly pursuing him, has probably ruined his life," celebrity philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy wrote on The Daily Beast website.
Others have expressed disgust with allegations that the Socialist politician routinely subjected women to crude sexual advances, and lived a luxurious lifestyle out of touch with ordinary French people, even in the glare of press attention in New York.
"Between his luxury tastes and other subjects, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has not offered a very positive image recently," Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno, a Sarkozy ally, said on Europe-1 radio.
Strauss-Kahn's abrupt reversals of fortune have angered many French, who viewed a New York police decision to parade him disheveled and handcuffed before cameras after his arrest as a trial by media and a gross violation of his rights.
The Socialist Party, struggling to find a candidate who can match Strauss-Kahn's know-how and experience, has said it is very unlikely he could make a late bid for the October party primary, but it would not close the door if he did so.
"Strauss-Kahn today is not a man who is hungry for power," Cambadelis said. "He is in a period of healing, rehabilitation, rebuilding, he's a man who's been hurt."
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