The arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault in New York City has thrown French presidential politics into disarray. Prior to his alleged sexual assault on a 32-year-old maid at a Manhattan's hotel, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who recently announced his resignation from the Fund, was leading in the polls to replace incumbent French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Most affected by the scandal is France's Socialist Party which must now find another candidate to replace its disgraced standard-bearer. In the meantime, leftists defending one of their own have been shameless, mixing equal parts of attacking the alleged victim with an odious denial of Strauss-Kahn's long track record of "seduction."
The maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in a New York hotel room is suffering "extraordinary" trauma, her lawyer said Tuesday, as the IMF chief remained locked up in notoriously tough Rikers Island jail.
The maid, a 32-year-old woman working at luxury Sofitel in Times Square, has not yet spoken in public. But her lawyer, Jeff Shapiro, told CNN in his first public comments that "the trauma that has taken place in her life is extraordinary." Meanwhile, a man who says he is the maid's brother said that she was in floods of tears after the alleged assault. "Something bad just happened. She was crying. She did not stop crying," said the man.
Saying that his sister was a Muslim, the man said "she was completely devastated. She was with the doctor and the police when she called me on Saturday afternoon." He also said that she'd not known who the alleged attacker was. "She didn't know who Dominique Strauss-Kahn was at the time of the incident. I was the one who explained to her," the man said.
His identity and his statements could not be independently confirmed. In New York's Bronx borough neighbours of the alleged victim spoke of a quiet woman who lives with her daughter and makes the commute from her working class neighbourhood to swanky Times Square.
"I know (her) since she moved here about six month (ago). She is nice, a nice girl, hard working woman and I saw her pretty much every day when she goes away to do this job and it is a nice family, her and her daughter, they live together," the building supervisor said.
Whatever happens this week, the bottom has fallen out of Strauss-Kahn's world. Until Saturday, when the alleged assault took place in his luxury Sofitel suite, the silver-haired Frenchman was a global VIP, enjoying a glamorous lifestyle and dealing with the world's most powerful leaders. He was also widely seen as the man who could unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections.
Now he is accused of a sickening attempt to force himself on an immigrant maid who allegedly entered his 28th floor room to clean, then found herself chased and assaulted by a naked man. He faces a long prison sentence if convicted. In France, Strauss-Kahn continues to enjoy some backing from supporters circulating conspiracy theories that he may have been set up. Many others have chosen to remain silent on the hugely embarrassing affair.
However on Tuesday, Prime Minister Francois Fillon was quoted saying there could be "no excuse" if the allegations were true. It would be "a very serious act," he said. Fillon was the most senior French politician to be quoted explicitly outlining a position on the alleged crime.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have promised a "vigorous" defence. In remarks at Monday's bail hearing the chief line of defense centered on assertions that Strauss-Kahn did not try to flee the country, as alleged, and that immediately after the time of the alleged crime he went to have lunch. This, lawyers say, indicates that he had nothing to hide and was not in a panic, as police and prosecutors have suggested.
Another possible defence, the New York Post tabloid reports, is that he may have had a consensual sexual encounter with the alleged victim. The Post quoted a "source close to the defence" saying "there may well have been consent." In court, lawyer Ben Brafman said that the evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter," but he did not elaborate and did not suggest consent. Prosecutors, however, say they have physical evidence, including a doctor's exam made immediately after the incident, indicating attempted rape.
On Tuesday, William Taylor, another defence attorney, would not confirm the Post story. "I don't have any comment. I don't even know who that is," he said, referring to the "source." In court papers filed by his defence team Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn said he had surrendered his passport and wouldn't flee the country. His attorneys proposed posting $1 million cash bail and confining him to the home of his daughter, Camille, a Columbia University graduate student, 24 hours a day with electronic monitoring.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, "is a loving husband and father, and a highly regarded diplomat, politician, lawyer, politician, economist and professor, with no criminal record," his attorneys wrote. They had proposed similar conditions at an earlier bail hearing but added the promise of house arrest Wednesday. A judge denied him bail Monday.
Investigators have revisited to the penthouse hotel room to cut out a piece of carpet in a painstaking search for DNA evidence, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
One of the officials said that the DNA testing was being "fast-tracked" but that the results could still be a few days away. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because neither was authorised to speak about the case publicly and because it has gone to a grand jury.
Strauss-Kahn went from his $3,000-a-night hotel suite to an isolated cell block at Rikers normally reserved for patients with contagious diseases. Kept in protective custody and on a suicide watch, authorities said he ate his meals alone in a single cell and was escorted everywhere by prison guards.
Defence lawyers can raise the issue of bail as many times as they like, and it's common to make new proposals and try again after a client gets high or no bail, said Stuart P. Slotnick, a New York defence lawyer not involved in the case. Such attempts can succeed if a judge is persuaded that new information reduces the perceived risk that the person won't come back to court if released.
Living elsewhere is often seen as raising that risk, but it's not insurmountable, Slotnick said. In a case like Strauss-Kahn's, bail "is not going to be a slam dunk, but if they can convince the judge that he's not a risk of flight, that he's going to come back, then he'll get bail," Slotnick said.
Manhattan prosecutors didn't immediately comment on the new bail motion. Another hearing had been scheduled for Friday, the deadline for prosecutors to bring an indictment, agree to a preliminary hearing or release him. In addition to examining the Sofitel Hotel suite for further potential DNA evidence, investigators were looking at the maid's keycard to determine whether she used it to enter the room, and how long she was there, officials said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment Wednesday on the details of the evidence-gathering but said results of any DNA and other testing have not yet come back. He said the detectives investigating the case found the maid's story believable. "Obviously, the credibility of the complainant is a factor in cases of this nature," Kelly said. "One of the things they're trained to look for, and what was reported to me early on, was that the complainant was credible."
One of Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, Benjamin Brafman, said at his client's arraignment this week that the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter." That led to speculation the defence would argue it was consensual sex. The woman's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, has dismissed suggestions from some of Strauss-Kahn's defenders that she made up the charges or tried to cover up a consensual encounter/.-Monitoring Desk/Agencies