Strauss-Kahn denies he admitted sex assault
Lawyers Frederique Beaulieu and Henri Leclerc dismissed allegations by writer Tristane Banon that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her during a 2003 interview as “lying accusations”.
In a statement, the lawyers insisted that Strauss-Kahn “didn’t hide anything about the exact nature of his relations” with Banon.
The statement came a day after the Paris prosecutor’s office said it has dropped an investigation into Banon’s attempted rape claims but added that Strauss-Kahn admitted during questioning to actions amounting to sexual assault.
The former IMF chief told police he grabbed the young woman who accused him of attempted rape, but released her when she resisted, according to a transcript seen by French news agency AFP.
“I tried to take her in my arms,” Strauss-Kahn said. “I tried to kiss her on the mouth. She pushed back firmly. She cried out, more or less, ‘Are you mad?’ I immediately relaxed my grip. She grabbed her things and left the flat, furious.”
On Thursday, French prosecutors halted an investigation into Banon’s claim that Strauss-Kahn, a politician and family friend 30 years her senior, had tried to rape her in an unfurnished Paris flat in 2003.
The magistrates said that while Strauss-Kahn had admitted to acts “that could be qualified as sexual assault“, the statute of limitations on such an offence — less serious than attempted rape — was only three years.
For 32-year-old Banon’s lawyer, the ruling was a partial victory, allowing him to claim that it showed that his client had not invented the incident to smear Strauss-Kahn, as the accused and his supporters once claimed.
“He will have to be satisfied with being an unconvicted sex attacker, protected by the statute of limitation from criminal charges, but not from legitimate suspicion about his behaviour towards women,” her lawyer said.
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