US News

Strauss-Kahn accuser says she told him ‘there was a rape attempt’ during meeting

PARIS — The French writer accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a 2003 rape attempt said she maintained her allegation during a police-arranged encounter with the former International Monetary Fund chief on Thursday.

“There was a rape attempt and I repeated that,” Tristane Banon told TF1 television after the two-hour meeting with Strauss-Kahn that was part of a police investigation to allow prosecutors to decide whether to press charges.

The former French Socialist presidential hopeful denies attempted rape of Banon, says her allegation is imaginary and is suing her for defamation. He reportedly left the meeting, which he attended without lawyers, with a smile on his face.

“I had in front of me exactly the same Strauss-Kahn that I saw on television, with the same arrogance, the same coldness,” said Banon, who lodged a formal complaint against Strauss-Kahn in July.

Banon brought the charge after Strauss-Kahn was accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, although charges related to that case were dropped after US prosecutors deemed the alleged victim unreliable.

“I thought he’d apologize at least for what he’s admitted to. I looked at him constantly, he didn’t dare look at me,” Banon said.

She said that in front of police, Strauss-Kahn said he had either forgotten what happened or that her allegations were imaginary.

She said she did not feel hatred towards Strauss-Kahn, only contempt, and alleged that he was employing people to try to discredit her.

“I knew I’d be given a hard time, just as Nafissatou Diallo (the hotel maid) was in the United States,” she said.

“That’s what’s happening, this group of public relations people is trying to get my ex-boyfriends to say that I’m unbalanced, to show my chaotic childhood, that I’m sleeping with my lawyer.

“In what kind of country do you attack my lawyer, my childhood my family my father in order to explain that I wasn’t the victim of an attempted rape?”