DSK release, May 2011 (cartoon ©2011 Patrick Chappatte, Globe Cartoon)
Update 23:45 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The rape charges in criminal court against former IMF (International Monetary Fund) head Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been dropped: an appeals court refused to appoint a special prosecutor, allowing a judge’s decision to drop charges, earlier in the day 23 August, to go ahead.
The prosecution had requested that charges be dropped on the basis that they were “no longer convinced of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt”.
The prosecution said in its filing in New York that there was evidence that Strauss-Kahn and Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at a New York hotel, had engaged in a sexual encounter, but whether it was consensual or rape was less clear.
The prosecution noted that Diallo, who has allowed her name to be used, had not been entirely truthful in tax documents and in her application for asylum from Guinea, and the case with a jury would rest on their ability to believe she was telling the truth.
Her lawyers argued that the prosecution was ignoring strong physical evidence.
Strauss-Kahn, who has been under house arrest since soon after his arrest in May, will be free to return to France. He was considered a leading candidate from the Left for the French presidential elections in 2012. Le Monde late Tuesday, in reporting on the charges being dropped, noted that his candidature has been “definitively compromised”, although the New York Times says that his political career is far from over.
Diallo has filed a civil case against the former IMF head, but since these are not criminal charges they will not keep him in New York. France does not allow its own citizens to be extradited, so once on French soil DSK, as he has become known since the case started, would not be obliged to return to the US.
Strauss-Kahn motion to dismiss, NY court (pdf)
Commentaries:
Guardian, “DSK walks, but Nicolas Sarkozy will run”
Le Monde (Fre), “Malgre le non-lieu, une affaire ‘impitoyable’”
New York Times, “End of Rape Case Brings the French Relief, and Political Questions”
Swiss news weekly L’Hebdo magazine’s 2 June edition features on its cover the murder trial of Cécile Brossard, accused of killing her lover, wealthy French banker Edouard Stern, in 2007. GenevaLunch, a partner of l’Hebdo, brings you the English version in two parts.
French version © 2009 l’Hebdo
English version © 2009 GenevaLunch (may not be reproduced in part or whole without written permission).
Part two: Edouard Stern, a man and a banker in too much of a hurry
28 February, Geneva: a brutal end, at age 50, to the life of Edouard Stern. Known as the enfant terrible of his bank who was headed for disaster at some point, he finally succeeded in achieving that. He was the offspring of a financial dynasty who, at the age of 22, found himself at the head of the family bank. He turned it into a gem, then sold it in 1988 to Société de Banque Suisse. He then joined his father-in-law, Michel David-Weill, at the centre of power of another high finance bank, Lazard. But his temperament didn’t sit well with the traditionalists. For Stern, business was something to be done quickly, without personal involvement.
