Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn inched closer on Tuesday to having US sex assault charges against him dropped although a complaint of assault in France could pose a further hurdle to any political comeback. The New York Post cited an unnamed senior investigator as saying prosecutors would drop their charges at a court hearing in two weeks, or even earlier, due to doubts about the credibility of the alleged victim.
However, a legal complaint by French writer Tristane Banon, who alleges Strauss-Kahn tried to assault her in Paris in 2003, was to be filed later on Tuesday, her lawyer told Reuters. Signs that the US charges are unravelling have set off a round of political sparring that threatens to poison the run-up to an April 2012 presidential election that Strauss-Kahn had been tipped to win for the left until his arrest in May for allegedly trying to rape a New York hotel maid.
French left-wingers, furious their star candidate has been all but knocked out of the election race, dismissed the Banon case as more evidence that Strauss-Kahn’s foes are determined to bring him down. “This is clearly a conspiracy against the Socialist Party,” he told LCI television.
