Strauss-Kahn awaits appeal verdict, sex charges dropped
Source: Agencies |
August 24, 2011, Wednesday
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A NEW York judge dropped all criminal sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn yesterday after prosecutors lost faith in the credibility of his accuser.
But the formal end of the case awaited the outcome of a last-ditch emergency appeal.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus accepted the prosecutors' request for dismissal of all charges. The move left the man once seen as the leading contender to be the next president of France close to freedom and the chance to try to rebuild his tarnished political career.
The former head of the IMF appeared in court with his wife Anne Sinclair by his side and the pair left the hearing smiling. He later issued a statement saying his life in recent months had been a "nightmare" and that he looked forward to life returning to more normal times.
Strauss-Kahn was not yet free to return to France, after New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus stayed his dismissal of the case for an emergency appeal.
A lawyer for the accuser, hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, had requested a special prosecutor to continue the criminal case, a request which was dismissed by Obus. But Diallo's lawyers appealed that decision. Obus said the appeals court would rule on that later in the day, meaning Strauss-Kahn must await that verdict before he is free to return to France.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Monday outlined how they lost faith in Diallo, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea who alleged Strauss-Kahn attacked her in his luxury hotel suite in Manhattan and forced her to perform oral sex.
While her account of the assault remained steadfast, Diallo told a series of lies about her past and about what happened immediately after the incident in the US$3,000-a-night suite in New York's Sofitel hotel on May 14, undermining her credibility, prosecutors said.
Physical evidence was unable to prove lack of consent, leaving the case hinging on the believability of the accuser. But with her testimony changing again and again and as more and more lies about her past emerged, prosecutors concluded in a 25-page filing, "If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."
Strauss-Kahn thanked friends in France and in the United States "who have believed in my innocence" and said he was "most deeply grateful to my wife and family."
The case pitted supporters of Strauss-Kahn who said he was the victim of an overzealous United States criminal justice system versus backers of Diallo who complained it was an example of sexual assault victims being denied justice.
Three months ago, Strauss-Kahn was the world's leading financial diplomat and a confidant of presidents rescuing debt-ridden nations. His downfall was shocking. Pulled from an Air France first-class seat by police, he was thrown into New York City's Rikers Island jail on charges of attempted rape.
Yet he is not entirely in the clear. Diallo has filed a civil lawsuit against him, and he faces a separate inquiry in France from a writer who alleged Strauss-Kahn forced himself on her during a 2003 interview in Paris.
Diallo's lawyers are also taking the case to France where they had been trying to establish a pattern of sexual abuse by Strauss-Kahn and had tried to contact other women who may have had similar encounters.
But the formal end of the case awaited the outcome of a last-ditch emergency appeal.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus accepted the prosecutors' request for dismissal of all charges. The move left the man once seen as the leading contender to be the next president of France close to freedom and the chance to try to rebuild his tarnished political career.
The former head of the IMF appeared in court with his wife Anne Sinclair by his side and the pair left the hearing smiling. He later issued a statement saying his life in recent months had been a "nightmare" and that he looked forward to life returning to more normal times.
Strauss-Kahn was not yet free to return to France, after New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus stayed his dismissal of the case for an emergency appeal.
A lawyer for the accuser, hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, had requested a special prosecutor to continue the criminal case, a request which was dismissed by Obus. But Diallo's lawyers appealed that decision. Obus said the appeals court would rule on that later in the day, meaning Strauss-Kahn must await that verdict before he is free to return to France.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Monday outlined how they lost faith in Diallo, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea who alleged Strauss-Kahn attacked her in his luxury hotel suite in Manhattan and forced her to perform oral sex.
While her account of the assault remained steadfast, Diallo told a series of lies about her past and about what happened immediately after the incident in the US$3,000-a-night suite in New York's Sofitel hotel on May 14, undermining her credibility, prosecutors said.
Physical evidence was unable to prove lack of consent, leaving the case hinging on the believability of the accuser. But with her testimony changing again and again and as more and more lies about her past emerged, prosecutors concluded in a 25-page filing, "If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."
Strauss-Kahn thanked friends in France and in the United States "who have believed in my innocence" and said he was "most deeply grateful to my wife and family."
The case pitted supporters of Strauss-Kahn who said he was the victim of an overzealous United States criminal justice system versus backers of Diallo who complained it was an example of sexual assault victims being denied justice.
Three months ago, Strauss-Kahn was the world's leading financial diplomat and a confidant of presidents rescuing debt-ridden nations. His downfall was shocking. Pulled from an Air France first-class seat by police, he was thrown into New York City's Rikers Island jail on charges of attempted rape.
Yet he is not entirely in the clear. Diallo has filed a civil lawsuit against him, and he faces a separate inquiry in France from a writer who alleged Strauss-Kahn forced himself on her during a 2003 interview in Paris.
Diallo's lawyers are also taking the case to France where they had been trying to establish a pattern of sexual abuse by Strauss-Kahn and had tried to contact other women who may have had similar encounters.
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