Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to break his silence in a prime time French television interview over charges he attempted to rape a hotel maid in New York, a French magazine said Thursday. “Strauss-Kahn will on Sunday answer questions from Claire Chazal during the 8:00 pm news on TF1,” Le Point said on its website. Chazal is a friend and former colleague of Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair.
Allegations he attempted to rape hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo in his luxury New York hotel suite in May led to Strauss-Kahn having to abandon his hopes of standing in next year’s French presidential election. Before the alleged attack, opinion polls said the Socialist politician was the candidate most likely to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy. Now, France is on tenterhooks to hear his account of what happened.
While US prosecutors dropped all charges against Strauss-Kahn after deeming the alleged victim unreliable, he has been interviewed by French police since returning to Paris on September 4 over another alleged attempted rape. French writer Tristane Banon, now 32, alleges that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in an empty Paris flat in 2003. Banon brought her allegation to the police in June after the New York allegations. Strauss-Kahn denies both attacks.