The Strauss-Kahn Courtcase Turn-around Is Bothering France …
- July 4th, 2011
- Posted by EUEditor
A court decision in New York has generated great confusion in the political community, and even wider community in France.
How can it be that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (picture), publicly accused of attempted rape, manacled, gaoled before going into house arrest, could suddenly be let go on bail?
POLITICAL COME-BACK?
What is more; would it be possible now for “DSK” to regain his position with the opposition Socialist Party, and stand as its candidate for the Presidential elections next year?
The bombshell was dropped on Friday when prosecutors conceded they had problems with the credibility of the hotel chamber maid who said the then-head of the International Monetary Fund had come out of a shower and jumped her sexually.
A highly proficient defence team had gone to work on the subject of the young woman from West Africa, who was said to have falsified tax information, to keep a rent subsidy; told unsound stories about being assaulted in the past; had a phone conversation with a gaol inmate about possible money to be had from the Strauss-Kahn affair, and significantly for the present case, had not told the truth about what happened immediately after her encounter with the accused.
Defence lawyers, still holding with forensic evidence, insisted the background was not on trial, and there remained a case to answer.
The case has not been shut sown; they are still holding his passport.
QUESTIONS
In Paris, the question was, whether the case would now end before the closing date for the Socialist Party nominations for a Presidential candidate.
Many other questions were being asked about the American judicial system, so open with accusations and displays of evidence outside of court.
Also, has enough mud been thrown that it would stick, making the man an impossible candidate?
Would the feminist movement brook the nomination of a man of appetites, after a career-busting episode such as has just been seen?
STORIES
In the myriad stories being told, journalists who’d had recent briefings from Strauss-Kahn said that he’d almost predicted a sex scandal of the kind that brought him down.
He’d intimated it might be the work of Russian interests, since the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was getting on well with his presumptive opponent at the polls, President Nicolas Sarkozy.
In the exaggerated tale, it would be a case of a woman receiving €500 000 after an incident in a car-park.
More concrete media briefings and commentaries have been patiently explaining how the courts work in America.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, economist and lawyer, was accused of committing sexual assault at the New York Sofitel Hotel on 14.5.11, and resigned as managing Director of the IMF four days later.
He’d been polling well as a likely Presidential candidate for the French socialists.
Reference
AFP, “Strauss-Kahn release stuns Franceâ€, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, 3.7.11. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Strauss+Kahn+release+stuns+France/5042554/story.html#ixzz1R39lkxFp, (4.7.11).
Le Monde, Paris, “Affaire DSK : un retour en politique est-il possible ?†(DSK case: can he get back into politics?); with AFP and Reuters, “Les faits: Le rebondissement judiciaire perturbe le lancement de la primaire socialisteâ€, (Can the judicial turn-around disrupt the socialist primaries?). www.lemonde,fr, (4.7.11).