Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from house arrest on Friday after prosecutors raised serious doubts about the credibility of the woman accusing him of sexual assault.
The sensational twist raised French opposition hopes that the sexual assault case will collapse and the Socialist party favourite will return to frontline politics, possibly even as a candidate to fight Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in 2012.
A smiling Strauss-Kahn, 62, appeared as if a large weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he left the frenzied atmosphere of the packed Manhattan courtroom, his arm affectionately draped on wife Anne Sinclair’s shoulder.
Strauss-Kahn, whose $1-million bail and $5-million bond will now be returned, is free to travel anywhere he likes in the United States, although the authorities will hang onto his passport, pending possible trial.
According to the alleged victim’s initial testimony to the grand jury, she fled Strauss-Kahn’s luxury Manhattan hotel suite immediately after the May 14 attack and waited in the hallway before informing a supervisor.
Details differ
But, prosecutors revealed Friday, the 32-year-old Guinean maid subsequently changed her story to say she actually cleaned another room and even returned to start cleaning Strauss-Kahn’s suite before alerting her bosses.
“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,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a letter sent to Strauss-Kahn’s defence lawyers.
Despite shattering the credibility of the maid, Vance vowed that prosecutors would continue their investigations until they had uncovered all the facts.
“Today’s proceedings did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the defendant,” he stressed.
Judge Michael Obus concurred, telling the court, “The case is not over, as we’ve heard. In the meantime there will be no rush to judgement on the case. We expect the process will go on.”
Dumbfounded
But legal experts, such as CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, who admitted to being dumbfounded by the day’s events, said the case was now heading in only one direction.
“It looks like this case is going to end with a dismissal of the case,” Toobin said. “It’s hard to imagine how there could be a trial at this point when the prosecution has essentially described its main witness as something close to a compulsive liar.”
Outside the courtroom, the maid’s lawyer admitted his client had made “some mistakes,” but insisted the strength of the forensic evidence would prove Strauss-Kahn was guilty of a brutal sexual assault.
The lawyer, Ken Thompson, went on to relay in the most graphic detail yet the accusations against Strauss-Kahn.
“Dominique Strauss-Kahn came out running out of one of those rooms naked, towards her, and he grabbed her breasts first and started to attack her. He grabbed her vagina with so much force that he bruised her vagina.”
Violent attack
Thompson said the attack was so violent that Strauss-Kahn ripped her stockings and tore a ligament in the maid’s shoulder. “That is a medical fact. She now may need surgery for the damage he caused to her shoulder,” he added.
“After he finished, she got up and started to run for that door and started spitting Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s semen out of her mouth in disgust all over that hotel room.”
Despite his defiance, Thompson admitted fearing the district attorney’s office was “laying the foundation to dismiss this case”.
“Our concern is that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is too afraid to try this case. We believe that he’s afraid that he’s going to lose this high-profile case.”
Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor thanked the prosecution for investigating the maid’s credibility and said: “These disclosures reinforce our conviction that he will be exonerated.”
Tumultuous times
Doubts over the maid’s credibility mark a stunning reversal in the case that has upended politics in France and prompted a change in leadership at the International Monetary Fund at a time of major upheaval in the eurozone.
Word that the case might implode has raised hopes among France’s opposition Socialists that a vindicated Strauss-Kahn might return to help them drive Sarkozy from office in next year’s elections.
“It’s a thunderbolt — but in the opposite direction this time,” said Socialist former prime minister Lionel Jospin.
Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from his high-profile post at the world’s crisis lender on May 18 to fight the charges, was ordered to return to court for his next scheduled hearing, on July 18. — AFP