Strauss Kahn loses appeal

1 May 2012 Last updated at 15:48 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

108ShareFacebookTwitter.Civil case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn to go ahead Criminal charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dropped in August Continue reading the main story
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A hotel maid's civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault by Dominique Strauss-Kahn can proceed to trial, a New York judge has said.

The judge rejected the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) head's bid to have the case dismissed on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.

The woman, Nafissatou Diallo, says Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in his hotel suite in May 2011. He denies it.

Prosecutors dropped criminal charges over the case last summer.

Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon said diplomatic immunity did not apply to Mr Strauss-Kahn at the time of the 14 May encounter at a Sofitel Hotel in New York City.

"Confronted with well-stated law that his voluntary resignation from the IMF terminated any immunity which he enjoyed... Mr Strauss-Kahn, threw (legally speaking that is) his own version of a Hail Mary pass," Judge McKeon wrote, according to the New York Post.

Ms Diallo has said Mr Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex; he says the encounter was consensual.

Criminal charges against the French economist were dropped in August, after prosecutors said Ms Diallo had changed her account of her actions immediately after the incident.

At the time of the incident, Mr Strauss-Kahn had been viewed as a potential candidate for the French presidency.

CNN) -- French prosecutors said Friday they are considering widening an investigation into former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged participation in a prostitution ring.

The prosecutor's office in Lille told CNN that investigating judges had drafted a preliminary order concerning allegations of gang rape made against Strauss-Kahn. The order had been sent to the prosecution on March 30.

"Currently the prosecutor is analyzing the order to decide whether to close the matter or open a preliminary investigation into the allegations," the prosecutor's office said.

The French newspaper Liberation reported Friday that the allegations stemmed from statements made by two women it describes as "escort girls," who were interviewed by Belgian police as part of an investigation into a prostitution ring run out of the Carlton Hotel in Lille, near France's border with Belgium.

According to the newspaper's account of the depositions, the women said they had accompanied two associates of Strauss-Kahn on a visit to Washington in December 2010, where they had stayed at the W Hotel. One of them alleged that Strauss-Kahn had used force against her during a sexual encounter at the hotel, despite her protests.

The newspaper did not specify how it obtained the statements. CNN could not independently confirm the report.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said no sexual assault at the hotel was reported at that time.



More legal woes for Strauss-Kahn

Prostitution ring case turns to DSK

Defining moments of Strauss-Kahn scandal Strauss-Kahn's lawyers in Lille and New York both declined to comment on the Liberation report when reached by CNN.

In a statement issued by his attorneys to Agence France Presse, Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations.

Strauss-Kahn "absolutely contests having committed the slightest act of violence of any nature whatsoever," his lawyers Henri Leclerc, Frederique Baulieu and Richard Malka said.

"The declarations made by these young women are contradictory," the statement said. Strauss Kahn's statement also said the women's testimony had been disclosed at an "opportune time," just before the final round of the French presidential election.

The prostitution investigation continues a string of sexual allegations against Strauss-Kahn. He has not been convicted of a crime.

Strauss-Kahn has been formally warned by French authorities that he is under investigation for "aggravated pimping" in connection with the prostitution investigation and has been released on 100,000-euro bail. He has pushed back against the accusations, saying he did not know young women at parties he attended were being paid for sex.

One of the sex scandals torpedoed his expected run for the French presidency this year. He stepped down from the top job at the International Monetary Fund after the May 2011 incident, in which a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault and attempted rape in May. He denied the accusation.

The case ultimately fell apart after prosecutors decided they could not be sure about the credibility of the alleged victim, despite forensic evidence that showed a sexual encounter had occurred.

The maid, Nafissatou Diallo, has since launched a civil action against the former IMF chief, alleging a "sadistic assault." This week a judge in New York rejected Strauss-Kahn's claim of diplomatic immunity.

Reacting to the latest allegations emerging from France, Diallo's attorney Douglas Wigdor said Friday that they demonstrated "that the Manhattan district attorney should not have dismissed the indictment and should have investigated (Strauss-Kahn's) pattern of conduct towards women."

Strauss-Kahn also faced allegations of attempted rape from a young French writer. Tristane Banon filed a complaint, alleging a 2003 attack, though it could not be pursued because of a statute of limitations.

He denied the allegations and has since filed a countersuit in France, alleging slander.

CNN's Stephanie Halasz, Carol Cratty and Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

21 May 2012 Last updated at 10:54 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

New rape claim in DSK inquiry

Profile: Dominique Strauss-Kahn


A French prosecutor has ordered an initial inquiry into claims that ex-IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was involved in "gang rape" in Washington.

The allegations come from a Belgian prostitute who said she was at a hotel sex party in the city in December 2010.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, is already under investigation with three other men over their alleged roles in a prostitution ring. He denies the allegations.

A charge that he attempted to rape a US hotel maid was dropped last year.

But the case put an end to Mr Strauss-Kahn's career at the International Monetary Fund and dashed his hopes of running as Socialist candidate for the French presidency.

In March, prosecutors in the northern French city of Lille placed him under formal investigation in connection with what has become known as the Carlton affair, after the Lille hotel in which several orgies are alleged to have taken place.

'Non-consensual sex'

Businessmen Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet and policeman Jean-Christophe Lagarde, who were named with Mr Strauss-Kahn as part of the Carlton affair, have also been implicated in the Washington hotel investigation.

It is claimed that the men hired prostitutes for sex parties in France and the United States while Mr Strauss-Kahn was in charge of the IMF.

According to a statement from the Lille prosecutor, the investigation centres on an incident "that could be described as gang rape".

The allegations are said to have come to light from evidence given by a Belgian prostitute who told Belgian police that she was forced into certain acts of non-consensual sex while in Washington on 16 December 2010. She has not filed a complaint.

"I didn't scream but I said clearly and loudly that I didn't want to," the woman is said to have testified.

But a second Belgian prostitute has called her account of events into question, in an interview with French media.

Police in Washington say they have checked their records for 16 December at the city's W hotel, named by media as the hotel involved, and have found no reports detailing allegations of such activity.

Earlier this month, the former IMF managing director's lawyers denied the accusations against him, saying he was the victim of a "lynching campaign".

The initial charge of "aggravated pimping as part an organised gang" carries a potential prison term of 20 years. A rape conviction can prompt a similar sentence.