NEW YORK/PARIS: The sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is near collapse, sources said, raising the prospect of a dramatic return to France’s presidential election race.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was a steward of the world economy and a leading candidate for the French presidency when he was arrested on May 14 and charged with assaulting a hotel maid in New York.
The arrest forced Strauss-Kahn’s resignation from the International Monetary Fund and appeared to end his presidential ambitions, but his political career could be revived if prosecutors drop their case against him.
In a dramatic turnabout, a source familiar with the case said on Thursday night that prosecutors now had their doubts about the maid’s credibility as a witness.
From the start, the case hinged on the purported victim, a 32-year-old Guinean immigrant who cleaned the 3,000 dollars-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan where Strauss-Kahn was staying.
Police and prosecutors initially trumpeted her credibility, and evidence showed that semen was found on the collar of her maid’s uniform, a source close to the investigation said.
But defense lawyers challenged the claim of a violent assault, suggesting a defense built on consensual sex.
Another source close to the case said that the district attorney’s office took the case to a grand jury without fully checking out the woman’s bona fides.
”Just about everything that was reported on this woman early on was untrue but no one checked or wanted to believe anything else,” the source told Reuters.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors met with Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers on Thursday and the parties were discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges.
It said Strauss-Kahn could be released on his own recognizance and freed from house arrest and that prosecutors may try to require that he plead guilty to a misdemeanor, but that his lawyers were likely to contest such a move. (PTI)