PARIS, (Reuters) – A French writer will file a legal complaint against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tomorrow alleging that he tried to rape her during an incident nine years ago, her lawyer told Reuters today.
The move comes just as a U.S. case against Strauss-Kahn on charges of attempted rape and sexual assault of a hotel maid seems close to collapse after prosecutors acknowledged she had lied under oath and changed her story.
The turnabout in the New York case has prompted some calls for the former Socialist finance minister to make a political comeback in France.
Lawyer David Koubbi said the complaint by Tristane Banon, 32, would relate to an incident that took place when she went to interview Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, in an apartment in Paris. She was 22 at the time.
“Tristane Banon will file a complaint on Tuesday for attempted rape in Paris,” Koubbi said.
“These acts are extremely serious,” he added. “These events were combined with a violence that was absolutely striking for these kinds of situations.”
The move by Banon, a journalist and author of a book and two novels, will follow Strauss-Kahn’s release from house arrest in New York on Friday after prosecutors said they now doubted the credibility of his Guinean-born accuser.
