Strauss-Kahn at NYC airport, may head for France
NEW YORK - September 3, 2011
Strauss-Kahn and his wife were seen arriving at the Air France
terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday,
dogged by a crowd of cameras. They did not say where they were
going as they headed for security, but French media have reported
Strauss-Kahn was expected to board a plane to Paris on Saturday.
The couple had left his rented New York City town home earlier
in the day, in the company of his daughter Camille, carrying about
a half-dozen pieces of luggage.
It would be the diplomat and economist's first return to his
native France since his May arrest on charges of forcing a hotel
housekeeper to perform oral sex and trying to rape her.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent almost a week in jail, six weeks on
house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the
country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last week,
saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant
Nafissatou Diallo.
Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a lawsuit.
Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations.
Strauss-Kahn has been free to travel internationally since his
passport was returned late last week. He'd told reporters he was
eager to return to France, but he first took a trip to Washington,
D.C., on Monday to bid farewell to former IMF colleagues at the
lending agency's headquarters. He had resigned days after his
arrest.
He returned Thursday to the $50,000-a-month Manhattan town home
he had rented for his house arrest.
Until his arrest, Strauss-Kahn was considered the Socialist
Party's front-runner to take on conservative French President
Nicolas Sarkozy next year. Socialists have rejoiced in the
dismissal of the criminal case against Strauss-Kahn, but few
observers in France expect a political return from him anytime
soon.
"This is a man who has suffered. It is a man who will obviously
take some time to get his bearings," his biographer, Michel
Taubmann, told The Associated Press last week.
Strauss-Kahn also will have to contend with a sexual assault
allegation that surfaced in France after his New York arrest.
Authorities are investigating novelist Tristane Banon's complaint
that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her while she was interviewing him
in 2002 - an incident her mother, a regional Socialist official,
has said she discouraged her from reporting at the time but is now
encouraging her to pursue.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have called Banon's account
"imaginary."
And Strauss-Kahn still faces Diallo's lawsuit in New York,
though it's unclear when he might have to be in New York for the
civil case. Lawsuits can take years to play out, and defendants
aren't required to come to court dates, as they generally are in
criminal cases. She's seeking unspecified damages.
Diallo, 33, says Strauss-Kahn chased her down in his suite and
attacked her after she arrived to clean it. Prosecutors said DNA
evidence shows they had a sexual encounter; his lawyers say it was
consensual.
After initially portraying Diallo as a compelling witness,
prosecutors developed doubts about her credibility. She had told
them a concocted tale of having been gang-raped in the past, among
other falsehoods about her background, and they said she gave
varying versions of her actions immediately after her encounter
with Strauss-Kahn.
"We simply no longer have confidence beyond a reasonable doubt
that the defendant is guilty," prosecutors wrote in a court filing
last week.
Diallo has said she's telling the truth about being attacked.
One of her lawyers, Douglas Wigdor, has said prosecutors' decision
to abandon the criminal case "is an affront to Ms. Diallo and to
all victims who come forward in the future."
The Associated Press does not name people who report being
sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come
forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done.
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