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Strauss-Kahn leaves a police station after a one-on-one meeting with writer, Tristane Banon AP/PTI

Strauss-Kahn comes face-to-face with French rape accuser

Investigators questioned the former IMF chief and Tristane Banon to help them decide whether to pursue charges of attempted rape brought by the 32-year-old woman.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN met in a face-to-face confrontation with a French woman who says he tried to rape her, but the woman claimed he refused to apologise or even look at her during the session with investigators today.

Investigators questioned the former International Monetary Fund chief and Tristane Banon to help them decide whether to pursue charges of attempted rape brought by the 32-year-old woman.

Banon claims that Strauss-Kahn attacked her during an interview for a book in 2003. Strauss-Kahn calls the claims imaginary and slanderous. Banon said in an interview with TF1 TV station that “he kept repeating it’s imaginary.”

She said that Strauss-Kahn emanated “arrogance” and “coldness” during the meeting. ”I thought he would excuse himself. He didn’t even look at me,” Banon said. Still, she said the meeting was a “first victory” for her.

Strauss-Kahn made his only public appearance since returning to France less than two weeks ago on the same show, and he has not made himself available to reporters since.

Banon requested the one-on-one meeting, which is sometimes used in France to help officials decide if a case is worth pursuing, with Strauss-Kahn.

No comment

The two did not speak to reporters as they arrived separately at the police facility and refused comment when they left.

Strauss-Kahn quit as IMF head and saw his chances for the French presidency evaporate after a New York hotel maid accused him of attempted rape in May.

The US case was later dropped amid questions about the maid’s credibility, but the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, has filed a civil suit. Strauss-Kahn claimed Monday he has diplomatic immunity and asked a New York court to dismiss the lawsuit.

French accuser Banon repeated her intention to do likewise if Paris prosecutors decide not to go forward with a criminal case against him.

One challenge for Banon’s case, which was filed after Strauss-Kahn’s May arrest in New York, is that the incident in question happened eight years ago.

Banon has said that Strauss-Kahn invited her to an empty apartment for the book interview, and they ended up tussling on the floor, with the politician trying to open her jeans and bra and putting his fingers in her mouth and underwear.

Disdain

Banon has defended her decision not to file charges against Strauss-Kahn at the time of the alleged incident. In 2003, she was 23 years old and Strauss-Kahn was an eminence grise of France’s Socialist party.

In the TV interview, she dismissed as irrelevant the time-lapse in her decision to take Strauss-Kahn to court.

“How do I prove he had the intention to rape me” be it 8 and a half hours after the incident, 8 and a half days, or 8 and a half years, she asked rhetorically. Material proof doesn’t always exist and it’s the intention of the alleged attacker that counts, she insisted.

“There was a rape attempt. I maintain that.”

Asked if she hates Strauss-Kahn, she responded, “No, I disdain him. I disdain him as much as he disdains me.”

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13 Comments
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    Mute Jams O' Donnell
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    May 12th 2019, 5:09 PM

    I always thought with communism when the shop’s were empty, nothing but Soviet B.S. on the state run telly, There was nothing to do but screw.! ( At least it was free).!

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    Mute Del Teeling
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    May 12th 2019, 5:14 PM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: How crass

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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    May 12th 2019, 5:38 PM

    @Del Teeling: back to Russia with you.

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    Mute Tony Donoghue
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    May 12th 2019, 6:07 PM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: nothing but babe station u say, there’s a lot to be said for communism perhaps

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    Mute Red Pirate 71
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    May 13th 2019, 1:39 AM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: wage equality, abortion. Divorce. Free access to education. Free housing. Free healthcare. Free holidays. Sounds space age? No. That’s the Soviet Union. Certainly not modern Ireland.

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:49 AM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: Well that would account for a higher birth rate than they have. Then again, no place has a birth rate like the Irish. (My father had 15 brothers and sisters….)

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:54 AM

    @Red Pirate 71: Irish people get that stuff in England.

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    Mute Tony Donoghue
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    May 12th 2019, 6:04 PM

    Russian ladies, the sweetest taboo

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    May 12th 2019, 6:27 PM

    Take that story with a grain of siberian salt.
    A Russian colleague once summed up her country’s attitude to sex as follows: ‘in Russia we have no God, no hell or heaven and no concept of sin. If we have an itch, we scratch it.’

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 12th 2019, 9:56 PM

    There again, anyone who hoped to escape probably wouldn’t want to risk leaving hostages behind. I’m fairly sure that no one was allowed to travel abroad in the past, unless their husband, wife or children stayed behind.

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    Mute Red Pirate 71
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    May 13th 2019, 1:40 AM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: totally incorrect. Along with most American generated propaganda about Russia.

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    Mute Maggie O'Connor
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    May 12th 2019, 7:22 PM

    I don’t think its too far removed from the old Irish Catholic view about sex.. it was deemed inappropriate and shameful even to talk about it. Thankfully that has changed but, i still won’t covet my neighbour’s wife.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    May 12th 2019, 7:32 PM

    @Maggie O’Connor: unless for

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    Mute rusty
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    May 12th 2019, 9:29 PM

    @Maggie O’Connor: why not ?

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    Mute Jumperoo
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    May 12th 2019, 11:05 PM

    @rusty: I don’t covet my neighbour’s wife either. She’s puck ugly, and painful to listen to.

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    Mute Aine O Connor
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    May 13th 2019, 8:04 AM

    @Jumperoo: who says she would be bothered with you either.

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    Mute Aine O Connor
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    May 13th 2019, 8:11 AM

    @Maggie O’Connor:
    The Irish did not talk much about sex but had plenty of it judging by the numbers of unmarried Mothers, Shotgun marraiges and very large families. Follow the evidence.Sex is like most activities, the more you practice the more you learn and the more you learn the better it gets.

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    Mute Joey Roche
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    May 12th 2019, 5:48 PM

    Russian man found with three testicles, Whodyanickthebollockoff.

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    Mute Me_a_monkey
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    May 13th 2019, 7:13 PM

    @Joey Roche: in soviet Russia, sex has you….

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    Mute Jonny
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    May 12th 2019, 6:40 PM

    We like beans, we like sauce, we like sexual intercourse

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    Mute anthony o cathain
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    May 13th 2019, 12:07 AM

    @Jonny: haha hahaha hahaha. Spastic

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    Mute anthony o cathain
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    May 13th 2019, 12:08 AM

    A scary society

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    Mute The decline of Manchester United
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    May 13th 2019, 6:20 AM

    Horrible small minded Government, even today Putin would have a new Soviet Empire all the way across Europe but he knows the Americans would wipe them off the map if he tried

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:55 AM

    @The decline of Manchester United: How, Russians aren’t allowed outside Russia without Visas even in Europe, while Americans are allowed everywhere visa-free “for 90 days”

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    Mute Guilherme Taffarel Bergamin
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    May 14th 2019, 2:20 PM

    Might be true for older people (40+), but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case with the young. I know a few Russians and I’d say they are pretty open about the subject. Homossexuality though I think it is still a taboo like it was in my country (Brazil) 20 – 15 years ago

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