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by DoYouEverWonder » Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:09 pm
"The prosecutor's report – and you have to read it attentively – accuses me of nothing that caused injuries. There is no trace of violence or injury either on her on me."
by Peachtree Pam » Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:49 pm
DSK Cleared in French Attempted Rape Inquiry
By Heather Smith - Oct 13, 2011 7:16 PM GMT+0200
Paris prosecutors dropped an investigation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn over allegations of attempted rape made by a French novelist, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to bring a case.
While there may have been grounds for a probe of sexual assault -- a lesser crime than rape -- the deadline for filing such charges has passed, prosecutors said. The police investigation of Tristane Banon’s allegation that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 turned up insufficient evidence to bring charges, prosecutors said in a statement.
Banon filed a complaint in July as another attempted-rape case against the 62-year-old was unraveling in New York. Strauss-Kahn resigned his post as head of the International Monetary Fund in May to fight claims made in that case by a Manhattan hotel maid. The charges were dropped in August after prosecutors concluded the housekeeper had lied about events surrounding the alleged attack and key details of her life.
“When there is no material proof because there was no medical exam, no complaint filed at the time, it is absolutely logical,” said Denis Chemla, a Paris lawyer uninvolved in the case, said of the prosecutors’ decision. “The prosecution could not have done otherwise.”
Calls to lawyers for Strauss-Kahn for comment on the decision weren’t immediately returned.
First Victory
“This decision by the prosecution, while unsatisfying, is a first victory for Miss Banon after five months of difficult struggle,” David Koubbi, a lawyer for Banon, said in an e-mailed statement. “It’s established without reserve that her case wasn’t empty.”
Strauss-Kahn and Banon were brought together by Paris police on Sept. 29 for simultaneous questioning to try to reconcile their differing versions of what happened when Banon met Strauss-Kahn for an interview.
She said he assaulted her, trying to remove her clothes and putting his hands in her mouth and underwear, according to an interview in the July 6 issue of the magazine L’Express.
He called her account “imaginary” in a slander suit he filed against her.
Banon, speaking at a Sept. 24 rally supporting tougher sexual-assault laws, said she may seek a private prosecution, in which a criminal complaint can be taken directly to an investigating judge, or pursue a civil case against Strauss- Kahn. Charges of attempted rape and rape can be brought for 10 years after the incident in France, while sexual assault has a three-year limit.
Chemla said he didn’t see that Strauss-Kahn had anything to fear from future investigations of Banon’s claims.
“There will still need to be evidence,” he said.
Strauss-Kahn returned to Paris last month after the New York case was dropped.
by Peachtree Pam » Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:56 pm
The French writer who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her when she went to interview him has written a book in which she appears to refer to him as a "baboon".
Tristane Banon, 32, described the former IMF head as behaving like a "rutting chimpanzee" during the alleged attack at an unfurnished Paris apartment in February 2003. Strauss-Kahn has described the allegations, which are under police investigation, as "imaginary".
Banon's book, Le Bal des Hypocrites (The Hypocrites' Ball), described as a 128-page "novelisation" of events in her life, would appear to be the latest salvo in a vitriolic battle of words between the young woman and the veteran politician, once tipped to become the next president of France.
Banon does not directly name Strauss-Kahn, but describes a man who lured her to his flat and who she claims she had to fight off as he forced his fingers into her mouth and his hands into her jeans, as the "pig" or "baboon".
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has admitted to police investigating Banon's claims that he made a pass at Banon and tried to kiss her, but denies any violence. He has lodged a countersuit for defamation.
After Strauss-Kahn, once the French Socialist party's presidential hope, was arrested and accused of the sexual assault and attempted rape of a New York hotel maid in May, Banon spent several weeks deciding whether to press charges.
When the US case against Strauss-Kahn collapsed in August because of doubts about the credibility of his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, she made a formal complaint to the Paris prosecutor. Strauss-Kahn returned to France, but his hopes of leading the country were finished.
In her book, an extract of which was published by Paris Match magazine, Banon writes of feeling sick when the man, assumed to be referring to Strauss-Kahn, was being hailed as the next president before his arrest in New York.
"It was nine o'clock that Saturday morning and they were talking about the baboon on the television. He is a superhero, a Messiah, saviour … capable of everything. He would revive the country, lower taxes, understand the weakest and bring happiness and calm to each French household.
"They showed pictures of him; in action in the four corners of the world. Superman. When I saw him his stare made me freeze, the television screen could not protect me, his smile was only for me, it forced its way into my stomach and the image only disappeared when I threw up my lunch. Suddenly his message on my telephone came back to me: "So, I scared you?". That was eight years ago.
"The years have passed, but nothing has completely effaced the memory."
Banon, whose mother, Anne Mansouret is a Socialist politician and god daughter to Strauss-Kahn's ex-wife, first revealed the alleged attack on a French TV chat show in 2007.
"I eventually spoke about it but I was too smiling when I did. I should have cried so that people understood the real ravages it had caused," she writes. "But alcohol had given my cheeks a rosy tint and, like Molière, I wanted to laugh about what had made me cry inside."
Banon says the show's other guests had waited until the cameras and microphones were off to say: "We knew, but …"
"But what? Nobody must make any waves, and above all not let the public know. Only the elite must know, only those of the elite know how to hold their tongues."
In response to why she had not complained to the police at the time, Banon writes: "Put yourself in my place." It was widely reported that Banon's mother had dissuaded her from going to the police telling her she would be known for the rest of her life as "the girl who had a problem with the politician".
Banon wrote that her decision in June to make an official complaint for "attempted rape", which is under preliminary investigation, was "taking the combat to the enemy".
In the book, published on Thursday, she also expresses shock that supporters have abandoned her. "How many promised to give evidence if, in future, they were called to do so? How many assured me of unwavering support? How many, suddenly disappeared the moment they were asked to sign a written declaration, when they had to photocopy their identity card to authenticate the statement?"
The Paris prosecutor's office is examining Banon's accusation of attempted rape against Strauss-Kahn to decide whether there is a case for him to answer.
by Sounder » Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:00 am
by JackRiddler » Tue Oct 18, 2011 6:31 pm
Sounder wrote:Police chief Jean-Christophe Lagarde organised an orgy for Strauss-Kahn in a Paris hotel, it was alleged today
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1b8LaiIxk
I wonder if this fellow is related to the Lagarde that replaced Kahn as head of the IMF.
(interview with Jean-Christophe Lagarde)
http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... agarde.php
Do you have a relationship with the Minister Christine Lagarde?
No, but it bothers me a lot on the internet, I can not find me .... That said we all laughed because she complained too (I think it abuses ...)
by Peachtree Pam » Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:44 pm
French writer Tristane Banon said Wednesday she will drop her attempt to have Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecuted, after state prosecutors said that an alleged sexual assault happened too long ago.
Banon told Canal+ television she would not ask an investigating magistrate to open a case, despite have previously threatened to pursue the case against the former IMF chief if state prosectors refused to take up her allegation.
Last week, French prosecutors halted an investigation into Banon's claim that Strauss-Kahn, a Socialisty politician and family friend 30 years her senior, had tried to rape her in an unfurnished Paris flat in 2003.
The magistrates said that, while Strauss-Kahn had admitted to acts "that could be qualified as sexual assault", the statute of limitations on such an offence -- more minor than attempted rape -- was only three years.
State prosecutors said, therefore, that they would not pursue the case, but under French law Banon could still have taken her complaint directly to judges and demanded they review the evidence. She will not now do so.
"Quite clearly, in the letter that the prosecutor sent me, he says that there was a sexual assault, so my status as victim is at least recognised," said the 32-year-old writer.
"I remain convinced and I continue to affirm that it was an attempted rape ... you can no longer say that I'm a liar," as Strauss-Kahn had alleged.
Banon said she would campaign for a bill extending the statute of limitations for sexual assault from three to 10 years to become law.
"I would have expected that he would have apologised but that would be asking this man too much, I don't think that he'll do it," she said.
"It's not for me to tell Mr Strauss-Kahn what he should do. I would firstly advise him to keep a low profile and for him to tell himself that from now on, he's officially a sex attacker."
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers argue the prosecutor's decision to drop the case left their client "completely cleared" and supported his claim that, while he "made an advance" on Banon, he had not been violent.
The former IMF director also still faces a civil suit in New York, where another young woman, a hotel chamber maid, claims he tried to rape her in May.
Strauss-Kahn again denied violence but admitted he had had a sexual encounter with the maid during her seven-minute visit to clean his room.
He was charged in a New York court, but prosecutors dropped the case amid doubts over the woman's testimony. She is pursuing a civil case for damages.
by Ben D » Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:06 pm
November 25, 2011 10:56 pm
The two hours that sank Strauss-Kahn
By FT reporters
It is a saga that begins with a hotel maid entering a presidential suite in New York and ends with high-fives near the security office as police arrive to arrest the high-profile guest. The Financial Times on Saturday publishes the most detailed account to date of the two hours that wrecked the political career of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The investigation, by the US investigative journalist Edward Epstein, to be published in full in the New York Review of Books, makes use of the detailed and time-stamped records from the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan to give a minute-by-minute account of what happened from the moment Nafissatou Diallo first entered Mr Strauss-Kahn’s suite to the moment that two New York police arrived.
More
The ensuing scandal and allegations of sexual assault forced his resignation as managing director of the International Monetary Fund and destroyed his chances of becoming French president in next year’s election.
At the time the scandal broke, he was the presumptive Socialist challenger to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and was well ahead of him in the opinion polls.
The criminal charges have since been dropped, but Ms Diallo’s civil case remains. Mr Strauss-Kahn has never denied there was a sexual encounter, but has always maintained it was consensual. He still faces other scandals in France. He is suing five publications and an adviser to Mr Sarkozy over reports linking him to a police investigation into an alleged prostitution ring in the northern city of Lille.
Making use of security camera footage, room key card data and telephone records – all provided to the prosecuting and defence teams – Mr Epstein has pieced together an account that raises more questions than it answers, but which will certainly fuel the suspicions of those who believe that Mr Strauss-Kahn may have been set up.
It also poses other questions surrounding a missing BlackBerry that Mr Strauss-Kahn never recovered and which he feared might be being hacked into by his enemies.
Sources close to Mr Strauss-Kahn told Mr Epstein that he had been warned that at least one of his private emails had been seen in a Paris office of Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party.
Using the information from the court records, the article describes what happened after Ms Diallo left Mr Strauss-Kahn’s room. According to key card details, having first entered Mr Strauss-Kahn’s room at 12.06 or 12.07pm, Ms Diallo apparently returned to a neighbouring room at 12.26pm – a room she had already visited several times that day. The resident of that room has never been identified.
]
From then, 16 minutes passed before the head of housekeeping notified the security staff and hotel management of the alleged assault. Almost 90 more minutes passed before the police were called. For much of this time she was seated on a bench in a service area, often accompanied by the hotel’s chief engineer, Brian Yearwood, who joined her having been up to Mr Strauss-Kahn’s room.
In the meantime, security staff were communicating with others who have not been identified, before finally alerting the police. The most curious episode happened before police arrived, when Mr Yearwood and another unnamed man wandered away towards a service area where “the two men high-five each other, clap their hands and do what looks like an extraordinary dance of celebration that lasts for three minutes”.
The missing BlackBerry, which Mr Strauss-Kahn left in his room, has not been found, but Mr Epstein reports that its GPS locator was disabled at 12.51pm on that day. None of the staff of the hotel co-operated with Mr Epstein for the article. He did not speak to the UMP.
by Stephen Morgan » Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:20 am
It is a saga that begins with a hotel maid entering a presidential suite in New York and ends with high-fives near the security office as police arrive to arrest the high-profile guest. The Financial Times on Saturday publishes the most detailed account to date of the two hours that wrecked the political career of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
by Mx32 » Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:32 pm
by Nordic » Sun Nov 27, 2011 10:42 pm
by wetland » Fri Jan 13, 2012 9:33 am
by Stephen Morgan » Fri Jan 13, 2012 10:57 am
by AlicetheKurious » Fri Jan 13, 2012 7:51 pm
Nordic wrote:To me it always clearly smelled like a set up.
Of course DSK played right into it. Because he's a sex addict.
Plenty of slime to go around in this one.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:34 am
Dominique Strauss-Kahn to Be Questioned On French Prostitution Ring
LILLE - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be quizzed as a suspect about involvement in an alleged illegal prostitution ring, a source familiar with the case said Saturday.
He has been summoned for questioning on Tuesday in connection with a police probe into the organization of sex parties in restaurants and swingers' clubs in Paris, Washington, Madrid, Vienna and Ghent, Belgium.
Strauss-Kahn could face charges if magistrates deem he was aware the women who took part were prostitutes and the funds to pay them were fraudulently obtained, as is being alleged against other suspects, the source said.
While theoretically he could be held for up to 96 hours the interrogation is not expected to last more than 48 and he can be accompanied by a lawyer.
A police source said it was not ruled out that Strauss-Kahn would be charged then taken before a judge to decide whether he should be remanded in custody.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, resigned as director of the International Monetary Fund in May after he was accused of raping a chambermaid in a New York hotel. He returned to France in August after the US case collapsed, only to face new allegations.
First, a 32-year-old writer accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003 but, while prosecutors said there was prima facie evidence of sexual assault, the case was too old to pursue.
Then he was implicated in an entirely separate investigation into the alleged prostitution ring said to have operated out of luxury hotels in the northern French city of Lille.
Magistrates have already charged several leading local figures with organizing the ring and there are suspicions that a construction company executive used his firm's money to entertain guests at sex parties.
Strauss-Kahn is also expected to be asked if he gave anything in return for the parties organized and funded by businessmen Fabrice Paszkowski and David Roquet, who have already been charged.
Lawyers for Paskowski, head of a medical equipment firm, and Roquet, former director of a subsidiary of public works group Eiffage, have denied any quid pro quo.
Others charged in the case include three hotel bosses, a lawyer and a local police chief.
Strauss-Kahn had demanded to be questioned by judges leading the inquiry, hoping to halt what his lawyers brand a "media lynching."
A book published in December quoted him as admitting to having an uninhibited sex life, including attending swingers' parties, but he denied knowing that any of the participants were prostitutes.
The last party he attended took place from May 11-13 in Washington, just before the incident with chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo in New York.
Once seen as the favourite to oust Nicolas Sarkozy and win April's French presidential election, Strauss-Kahn is now an embarrassment to his Socialist Party, shunned by the campaign and former close allies.
He still faces a civil suit from the New York hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo.
Strauss-Kahn's journalist wife Anne Sinclair, 63, who stood by the disgraced former IMF chief during the New York scandal, was named editor of the French edition of the Huffington Post Internet newspaper last month.
by seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:28 am
Strauss-Kahn Held In Police Custody
By NADYA MASIDLOVER
PARIS—Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken into police custody for questioning Tuesday in relation to an alleged prostitution ring that operated out of the northern French city of Lille.
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrives at a police station in Lille, northern France, on Tuesday.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn presented himself at the police station Tuesday morning and was taken into custody at 9.00 a.m. CET, said a spokeswoman at the Lille prosecutor's office.
He is currently being questioned with regard to an investigation for "complicity in a prostitution network" and "aiding and abetting in the misappropriation of company assets", the spokeswoman said. Mr. Strauss-Kahn can be held in custody for up to 48 hours, with a possible renewal of custody for a second 48-hour period, she added.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have repeatedly said their client wished to be heard by Lille prosecutors "as quickly as possible," saying they wanted to put an end to a "press lynching." His lawyers couldn't immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
French police are conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the alleged prostitution ring and have already charged eight people, including a police commissioner and a former regional head of a French company, who was allegedly expensing the costs of the circle that operated out of Lille's luxury Carlton Hotel. Paying prostitutes isn't illegal in France but encouraging prostitution by offering them to others and using corporate funds to pay for them is. According to French press reports, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was invited to parties by the prostitution ring.
Asked on French radio in December about whether Mr. Strauss-Kahn knew the women at these parties were prostitutes, the former IMF chief's lawyer Henri Leclerc said he had no reason to think so.
"He could well have not realized it, because you see, in these parties, one is not necessarily clothed and I challenge you to tell a naked prostitute from a naked lady of the world," Mr. Leclerc told Europe 1 radio.
Depending on the outcome of the questioning, Mr. Strauss-Kahn could be released without charge and possibly considered a witness in the case. Or he could face preliminary charges. Under the latter scenario, prosecutors say he could either be released awaiting trial, or placed under judicial control or even detained.
A former socialist finance minister, Mr. Strauss-Kahn's French presidential ambitions were dashed by his arrest last May in New York on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid and he resigned his IMF post shortly afterward. The charges were dropped in August after New York prosecutors said they couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the former IMF chief had attacked the maid, Nafissatou Diallo. Mr. Strauss-Kahn has denied he raped or assaulted Ms. Diallo.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn returned to France in early September 2011 and said he wouldn't run for president in 2012. But he continued to deal with the damaging allegations.
Shortly after his return, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was questioned by French police as part of a separate probe into sexual-assault accusations made by a French novelist against the politician. In October, French prosecutors dismissed the complaint filed by novelist Tristane Banon, saying the three-year statute of limitations on sexual assault had lapsed.
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