Charges dropped

A New York court on Tuesday dropped all charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, formally ending a sexual assault case that drew worldwide media attention.

"I see no basis to deny," said New York state Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus, after agreeing to a petition to drop the charges presented by prosecutors.

The decision meant Strauss-Kahn was free to return to his Lower Manhattan residence, but not return to his native France. His passport has been withheld pending a ruling on an appeal against the motion. The French newspaper Le Monde reported that this could take as long as 30 days.

"This is the end of a terrible and unjust ordeal," Strauss-Kahn told reporters outside of his residence.

"I'm eager to return to my country, but first there are a few small things I need to do before leaving," he said. "I'll express myself at greater length once I'm back in France."

Strauss-Kahn was arrested by New York police on May 14 on board an Air France plane just minutes before it was scheduled to take off for Paris.

The 62-year-old international banker was accused of the attempted rape of a maid in the luxury hotel in which he had been staying, and was led off in handcuffs.

Strauss-Kahn insisted all along that he was innocent, but resigned as managing director of the International Monetary Fund just days later.

His accuser is Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old Guinean. Early in the investigation forensics specialists and prosecutors found evidence that sexual contact had taken place as well as signs that it may well not have been consensual.

Doubts about the alleged victim's story

Prosecutors subsequently brought the case before a grand jury for a formal indictment, but Diallo's credibility was soon called into question.

Investigators found out that Diallo had lied on her asylum application, including a claim that she had been gang raped in her native Guinea. Perhaps more damaging to the case was the fact that she provided investigators with three separate versions of events on the day she claimed Strauss-Kahn had sexually assaulted her.

In their motion to the judge to dismiss all charges, prosecutors said they no longer believed her claims beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The complainant has been persistently, and at times inexplicably, untruthful in describing matters of both great and small significance," prosecutors said in the motion filed to the New York state Supreme Court. "In our repeated interviews with her, the complete truth about the charged incident and her background has, for that reason, remained elusive."

Following the decision by the court to drop the charges, Diallo's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, announced he would launch an appeal.

"We will take our fight in a civil case to prove that Ms Diallo, an innocent hardworking woman, was sexually assaulted in room 2806 of the Sofitel," Thomson said, before criticizing New York attorney Cyrus Vance.

"Vance has abandoned an innocent woman and denied her the right to get justice in a rape case [and by doing so has] also abandoned other women," Diallo's lawyer said.

Prior to his arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been seen as a possible Socialist candidate to challenge French President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's election. It wasn't immediately clear whether the former cabinet minister would seek a return to French politics.

Author: Chuck Penfold (Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler