Karen Freifeld New York
The case of sexual assault against former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn would be pursued along with an investigation of false statements by his accuser that had “raised concerns”, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said on Saturday.
Strauss-Kahn, who has pleaded not guilty of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York on May 14, was freed from home confinement on Friday while awaiting trial after prosecutors said the case had been hurt by his accuser’s “substantial credibility issues”.
While prosecutors will keep his travel documents, his bail was returned and he is allowed to travel throughout the US.
According to a letter filed by prosecutors in court on Friday, the housekeeper from Guinea lied about her actions right after the alleged attack, as well as on her tax returns and in an application for asylum.
Strauss-Kahn had posted $1 million (R6.7m) bail and a $5m bond and, until Friday, he could leave home only for legal, medical and religious reasons.
His next court hearing is scheduled for July 18.
At the time of the alleged attack, assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said, “we were faced with a credible claim about a serious sexual assault by a civilian witness who made prompt outcry to third parties and had a solid work history with her employer”. The investigation “caused us to reassess” the case’s strength, which was hurt by the woman’s “substantial credibility issues”, she said.
The prosecutors’ letter says the woman told the grand jury that after the assault she fled to the hotel’s hallway and waited until she saw Strauss-Kahn leave before reporting the incident to her supervisor.
“The complainant has since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in suite 2806 she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor,” the letter says.
The woman had admitted to other lies, the letter added. She had said that for the past two years, she had declared a friend’s child as a dependant on her tax returns.
The letter says the woman admitted she lied in her application for US asylum about being persecuted by the regime in Guinea. Initially the woman told prosecutors she had been gang raped in Guinea. In later interviews, “she admitted that the gang rape had never occurred”. – Bloomberg