dOMINIQUE sTRAUSS-kAHN (Bauer Griffin)
Randy former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted to French police that he tried to kiss a young author but denied trying to rape her, it was reported yesterday.
The former French presidential contender was quizzed by authorities after he returned to Paris from New York this month about Tristane Banon’s charges that he assaulted and tried to rape her in her Paris apartment in 2003.
Banon, now 32, said he tried to grab hold of her “like a rutting chimpanzee,” forced her to the floor, and tried to take her jeans off. She said she managed to escape only after kicking and punching.
Strauss-Kahn told investigators on Monday he only made a pass at Banon, including trying to kiss her, and stopped after she rebuffed him, the newspaper L’Express said yesterday.
The Agence France-Presse news service quoted a source close to the probe as saying the chubby economist “conceded that he had made advances to her, without being very precise about the nature of these advances.”
If convicted of attempted rape, Strauss-Kahn faces up to 15 years in prison, according to French law. He reportedly requested the interrogation, which lasted more than three hours, by French police.
Banon had revealed the encounter four years ago, but she was talked out of pressing charges by her mother, a figure in France’s Socialist Party, which counts Strauss-Kahn as one of its stars.
She went to police this year after Strauss-Kahn was arrested for allegedly trying to rape maid Nafissatou Diallo at the Sofitel Hotel, charges that were later dropped.
The latest development comes on the eve of an interview, airing on French TV tomorrow night, in which Strauss-Kahn will finally break his silence about Diallo.
Although New York prosecutors dropped charges against him because of questions about Diallo’s truthfulness, he still faces a civil suit.
Strauss-Khan has claimed he had consensual sex with Diallo, but denied any wrongdoing. He has also filed a defamation countersuit.