PARIS — Hotel CCTV images of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the New York chambermaid who accused him of attempted rape were broadcast by French news channel BFMTV on Thursday.
The former IMF chief is shown calmly leaving the Sofitel hotel May 14. Nafissatou Diallo is filmed speaking to hotel security staff, who are in turn seen performing a bizarre celebratory dance.
Strauss-Kahn exits the elevator, pays his bill at the front desk and then climbs into a taxi outside in a sequence lasting a matter of minutes. He does not appear to be hurrying or in a distressed state.
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The recording cuts to show Diallo at first sitting alone and quietly in a corridor opposite a security office. She then appears to play out the scene alleged to have taken place in room 2806 earlier for other members of staff.
The muted sequence then cuts to the two security personnel alone in a side room appearing to be celebrating with some sort of victory dance, which lasted 13 seconds. It is not clear why, but reports of the episode last month in the New York Review of Books suggested it added weight to the theory that Strauss-Kahn was set up by his political enemies.
The two hotel staff and management denied the celebration had anything to do with Strauss-Kahn’s case.
More CCTV images are said to exist but had yet to be aired.
Strauss-Kahn, a former potential French presidential candidate for the opposition Socialist party, resigned his position as head of the IMF after his arrest in New York. The case against him eventually collapsed after questions arose about Diallo’s credibility. She later launched an ongoing civil case against him.
On his return to Paris, Strauss-Kahn was then accused of attempting to rape a writer in 2003, but the case was not pursued. He is now facing renewed pressure after being linked to an alleged prostitution ring in northern France — a claim he also denies.