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DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN has returned to France for the first time since being charged with the attempted rape of a New York hotel maid, in a a scandal that wrecked the former IMF chief’s chances for the French presidency.
New York prosecutors later dropped their case against Strauss-Kahn because of questions about the maid’s credibility, but the affair cost him his job at the IMF and exposed his personal life to worldwide scrutiny that has stained his image and plunged his political future into uncertainty.
Smiling and waving silently, he stepped off an Air France flight this morning at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport – a different man from the one who, just four months ago, had been the pollsters’ favorite to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections.
Few expect Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics soon, but his supporters have been eagerly awaiting his return after three months of legal drama in the US that they saw as unfairly hostile to him.
“I’m moved, I always believed in his innocence. I wanted very much for this to be over,” Michelle Sabban, a fellow Socialist Party member, said on i-Tele television.
His wife, respected former TV personality Anne Sinclair, was at Strauss-Kahn’s side as he arrived, beaming widely. Riot police protected him and the area. The crush of reporters outside their home was so thick that Strauss-Kahn had trouble reaching and opening his front door.
The last time he tried to take an Air France flight from JFK airport, Strauss-Kahn was pulled out of first class minutes before takeoff by police. They were investigating the maid’s claim that hours earlier, Strauss-Kahn had forced her to perform oral sex and tried to rape her.
He quit his job, spent almost a week in jail, then six weeks of house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last month, 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.
A Strauss-Kahn faces another investigation in France over attempted rape, based on accusations by French novelist Tristane Banon. He calls the claim “imaginary.”
Banon’s mother, Anne Mansouret, believes that Strauss-Kahn’s return “is a good thing for my daughter’s complaint because he will have to answer to police.”
Banon says she didn’t file a complaint after the 2003 incident because her mother, a regional Socialist official, urged her not to.
I always thought this was the one that will have him eating porridge.
@ggg:
@ggg:
@ggg: yup. Of all of the cases against him this is the most likely to end up with a prison sentence. Easy to prove and automatic prison time.
They are really pushing for civil war over there! the democratics want to be careful what they wish for.
Where’s the charges for the people who repressed the hunter Biden laptop fiasco, and lying calling it a “Russian misinformation” all in the run up too the last election because it would have been detrimental impact on Biden campaign! Election meddling at its finest by the democratics and intelligence services..
@I9AQcjXs: Are you saying that Republicans aren’t democratic?
@I9AQcjXs: it’s not the democrats prosecuting him. Hunter biden is a private citizen and a republican led oversight commitee has admitted there is nothing illegal on the laptop. It is a nothing burger, as they say. If this is election meddling, what do you call trump asking georgia to ‘find’ 11k votes?
@I9AQcjXs: so Trump shouldn’t have to abide by the law because it might offend some of his lunatic supporters? Also you are way behind the time regarding Hunters laptop which even the GOP say is a nothing burger. Not to mention that he isn’t running for public office and never has. But you know who was running for office? Hillary Clinton, when her email story was announced the week before the election. But you’re not interested in facts are you? That’s why you didn’t know that the Laptop story has been done to death and proven to be much ado about nothing.
I’m not a supporter of trump but the alleged crimes committed in 2016 and 2020 are coming to the forefront now with prosecutions. He could have been prosecuted at the time but all this coming up now when he is running for election shows a pure political motivation to these allegations.
@Ciaran: can’t prosecute a sitting president, he was in office between those years. Also this particular offence didn’t happen until the end of 2020. Prosecutions in the USA take as long as they do here.
Finally an article on Niall Collins but surprise surprise, comments once again closed. Why do the journal feel he needs protecting from criticism or questions? None of this debacle is before the courts yet. Cowardly journal staff.
@ggg: Their website. Their terms and conditions. Their legal liability for content, including comments posted. I’m sure Their are plenty of forums on which you could comment online about that news story.
@Numinous20111: what legal liability? Nothing is before the courts. I’m thinking you may not know what legal liability is my friend.
@ggg: It’s commonsense, not cowardice. We have strong libel laws in Ireland and the commentators on here aren’t exactly known for their ability to fact check what they’re posting.
@The Big Baba: I can’t reply directly to ggg, so have to reply by means of your own comment. In your eagerness to comment, you are forgetting
or ignoring that comments here can be retrospectively relevant if legal process commences. Think also of why Fox News fired Carlson yesterday.
The amount of sad deluded people that refuse to accept how the lying treacherous orange thing is playing them for every penny he can.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: nothing burger”
have your say