Former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the French writer who has accused him of a 2003 rape attempt, Tristane Banon, arrived at a police station yesterday to be brought face to face.
Banon, 32, arrived by car, followed about half an hour later by the Socialist politician, with a large crowd of photographers awaiting them. Police are probing the allegation before prosecutors decide whether to press charges.
The confrontation between accused and accuser is to take place without lawyers present. Such an encounter is common in French justice when two people in a case give different versions of events.
The meeting could bring investigations to a close, after which the prosecutor could decide that there is no case, that the alleged crime happened too long ago or that a prosecution is warranted.
Banon said on Saturday that she was afraid of meeting the man she says locked her in a bare Paris flat in 2003 and assaulted her.
Police have already interviewed about 20 witnesses in the case, including Socialist leader and presidential hopeful Francois Hollande.
Banon first made her allegations public on television in 2007, but only brought them to magistrates after a chambermaid at an upscale New York hotel accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault in May.
The New York prosecutor’s case collapsed last month after doubts emerged over the credibility of his accuser, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo, who is still seeking damages from a US civil court.
Banon accuses Strauss-Kahn of wrestling with her “like a rutting chimpanzee” after luring her into an unfurnished Paris flat on the pretext of offering her an interview for a book she was writing.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has admitted making “an advance” on Banon, but denies any use of violence and has lodged a lawsuit for slander against the writer over her claim.
Banon’s complaint is for attempted rape rather than sexual assault or harassment, and if the prosecutor decides to downgrade the charge, Strauss-Kahn would be protected by a statute of limitations on the lesser crimes.
She has said that she would bring a civil suit if there is no criminal prosecution.
Banon told a television interviewer last week that she was keen to confront her alleged abuser in front of police.
“I want him in front of me so he can look into my eyes and say to my face that I imagined it,” Banon said in the interview.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese