The sexual assault charges that cost Dominique Strauss-Kahn his job as head of the International Monetary Fund likely will be dropped by prosecutors, a person familiar with the case said.
The likely developments would bring a formal end to the case at Strauss-Kahn's next court date on Tuesday, when prosecutors may ask a judge to dismiss the charges and might elaborate on their reasoning.
The Manhattan district attorney's office probably will tell Strauss-Kahn's accuser Monday that it won't pursue the case, both because prosecutors don't have evidence proving a forced sexual encounter and because she has a history of lies and inconsistencies that make it impossible to ask a jury to believe her, the person said. The person spoke Sunday on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public.
The case upended French politics before it was riven by questions about his accuser's credibility. It captured international attention as a seeming cauldron of sex, violence, power and politics: A promising French presidential contender, known in his homeland as "the Great Seducer," accused of a brutal and contemptuous attack on an African immigrant who came to clean his plush hotel suite.
The stakes were high for both Strauss-Kahn — who resigned his IMF post, spent nearly a week behind bars and then spent possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on house arrest — and for DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who was handling the biggest case he has had during his 18 months in office.
One of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, didn't immediately respond to an email message Sunday, after the New York Post first reported prosecutors' likely decision to drop the case. The DA's office declined to comment.
The hotel maid's lawyer had predicted prosecutors would tell her Monday they were dropping the case. The attorney, Kenneth Thompson, told France's RTL radio on Sunday that the woman, Nafissatou Diallo, "feels abandoned by the Manhattan District Attorney." The questions raised about her credibility have made her feel "that she's being investigated more than Strauss-Kahn," he said.
Then considered a promising Socialist candidate for the French presidency, Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested in May. Diallo, 32, said the diplomat chased her down and forced her to perform oral sex when she arrived to clean his plush suite at the Sofitel hotel.
Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations. Brafman and fellow Strauss-Kahn lawyer William W. Taylor III have said anything that happened wasn't forced. Thompson calls that "utter nonsense."
Like many sexual assault cases, in which the accused and accuser are often the only eyewitnesses, the Strauss-Kahn case has hinged heavily on the woman's believability.
Early on, prosecutors stressed that Diallo had provided "a compelling and unwavering story" replete with "very powerful details" and buttressed by forensic evidence; his semen was found on her uniform. The police commissioner said seasoned detectives had found her credible.
But then prosecutors said July 1 they'd found the maid had told them a series of troubling falsehoods, including a persuasive but phony account of having been gang-raped in her native Guinea. She said she was echoing a story she'd told to enhance her 2003 application for political asylum. She told interviewers she was raped in her homeland under other circumstances and embellished it to get herself and her 15-year-old daughter a chance at a better life in the U.S.
沒有留言:
張貼留言