Former International Monetary Fund’s, IMF boss, Mr. Dominique
Strauss-Khan, will be engaged in a new battle on a different front, as
he fights to salvage his battered reputation, joblessness, fractured
political career among others.
Fortunately, he has escaped the sexual assault charges proffered
against him in the United States. A New York judge, had earlier in the
week, dismissed the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
though, the order is on hold until an appeal court rules on his
accuser’s request for a special prosecutor.
A 33-year-old Guinean maid, Nafissatou Diallo, had claimed that the
former head of the International Monetary Fund attacked her and sexually
assaulted her in his luxury suite on May 14. She has appealed. But
reports said the hotel maid rolled around on the floor hysterically
crying when confronted about a web of lies she is said to have told to
have him arrested. As the Manhattan district attorney’s office asked a
judge to drop the sexual assault case against the former IMF chief, it
is said Diallo finally admitted to her deception, simply telling
prosecutors: ‘I wasn’t under oath’. The $3,000 night hotel room
Strauss-Kahn was staying in when he allegedly attacked Diallo contained
the semen of between four and seven other men, the report revealed.
Four stains were found on the carpet of the room at the Sofitel,
three of which contained remnants of the semen of three different men.
The fourth stain on its own, bizarrely, contained DNA from three
different men. Investigators also found another stain on the wallpaper.
According to the recommendation for dismissal, the stains provided ‘no
evidence that any other person was present during the charged incident’.
Therefore, ‘the circumstances under which the unidentified DNA was
deposited are unrelated,’ it found. The development follows a meeting
with Diallo and prosecutors about a ‘bombshell’ report with details of
her alleged deception. ‘In virtually every substantive interview with
prosecutors, despite entreaties to simply be truthful, she has not been
truthful, on matters great and small, many pertaining to her background
and some relating to the circumstances of the incident itself,’ the
document states.
Judges immediately approve these kinds of requests, experts said.
‘After an extensive investigation, it is clear that proof of two
critical elements – force and lack of consent – would rest solely on the
testimony of the complaining witness at trial. Indeed, the case rises
and falls on her testimony.’ the report continued.
‘Because we cannot credit the complainant’s testimony beyond a
reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so.’ Among evidence
provided to prove Diallo’s lies is a history of supposedly fraudulent
statements she is said to have made under oath in the past, as well as
conflicting accounts told to investigators, the media and in court.
‘We have no confidence that the complainant would tell the truth on
this issue if she were called as a witness at trial,’ the report states.
When she told prosecutors she was gang raped by soldiers in Guinea, her
country of birth, she ‘laid her head face down on her arms on a table
in front of her,’ as she said her two-year-old daughter was pulled from
her arms and thrown to the floor. The hotel maid later admitted she had
not been gang raped and that she had made up the story to help gain
asylum to the U.S.
When confronted about another lie, she is said to have ‘dropped to
the floor, and physically rolled around while weeping.’ The document
goes on to allege that she failed to disclose $60,000 in deposits made
to her account ‘by individuals in four different states’.
When she was asked about the money, she said it was from her fiancé
Amara Tarawally – who has been convicted of drug offences in Arizona
after he tried to buy $36,500 of marijuana from undercover policemen.
While Diallo insisted she had no intention to try cash in on her case
against Strauss-Kahn, the papers allege that ‘very close in time to
these statements, the complainant had a recorded conversation with her
incarcerated fiancé, in which the potential for financial recovery in
relation to the May 14, 2011 incident was mentioned.’ The report
continues: ‘Although there is nothing wrong with seeking recovery from a
defendant in a civil suit, the complainant’s disavowal of any financial
interest is relevant to her credibility.’
The sudden turnaround has led to speculation that Strauss-Kahn, a
Socialist politician, could resume his campaign to succeed Nicolas
Sarkozy as President of France next year. In a stunning turnaround,
Strauss-Kahn was expected to be free in court, leaving him free to
return to France and even run for the country’s presidency. He helped
transformed the organisation significantly, especially during the period
of the global financial crisis. The IMF, before his entry, was a
stickler for orthodox fiscal policy that imposed remorseless conditions
on countries in difficulty.
His dream was to make the IMF central in any such ambitious reform
but he left with it still on the drawing board.He is expected, as parts
of an image laundering and rehabilitation process, to return to France
and try to win over his fellow Socialist Party members and the French
public.
Analysts are of the view that it is unlikely that he will start
making any impassioned or combative statements of his innocence soon and
will try to reclaim his turf in France’s looming presidential race.
They said that Strauss-Kahn is aware that even if he no longer runs
any risk of being found guilty of criminal sexual misconduct in the
U.S., the on-going French investigation into the attempted rape claims
will continue leaving him vulnerable—if nothing else, to public
suspicions about his conduct and credibility following the media reports
about his objectionable private behavior that have swirled over the
past three months.
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