DSK case dropped despite evidence of sex assault

THE Paris prosecutor’s office yesterday dropped its investigation into a writer’s claim that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her, though it said the former IMF chief admitted to behaviour that could qualify as sexual assault.

In a dramatic legal twist, the prosecutor said it couldn’t put Strauss-Kahn on trial for the lesser sexual assault charge because the incident occurred too long ago. The statute of limitations on that charge is three years; on attempted rape it’s 10 years.

During questioning into the French case, Strauss- Kahn admitted to what prosecutors described in a statement as sexual assault against writer Tristane Banon, during a 2003 interview for a book she was writing.