NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn yesterday appealed a judge’s decision to allow to move forward a civil lawsuit brought against him by a hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.
In court papers filed in the Bronx, Strauss-Kahn’s legal team argued that New York state Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon erred in ruling last month that the former International Monetary Fund chief was not entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in midtown Manhattan, accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in his suite on May 14, 2011. He has said the encounter was consensual, and prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against him last summer after they grew concerned about Diallo’s credibility.
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have argued that he had absolute immunity from both criminal and civil prosecution at the time of the incident, based on a 1947 UN treaty that grants protection to the heads of specialized agencies. Though the US is not a signatory, they asserted that it had become so widely accepted that it has the force of international law worldwide.
But McKeon rejected that claim May 1, calling it a “Hail Mary” attempt and pointing out that Strauss-Kahn failed to assert his immunity at any point during the criminal investigation, even when he was pulled from an Air France airplane and placed under arrest.
