Former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife Anne Sinclair depart a hearing at the New York State Supreme Courthouse in New York on July 1, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Lucas JacksonBy Basil Katz and Mark EganNEW YORK | SAT 2 July 2011 4 pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - former Chief IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is out of the House of detention Friday after prosecutors said the servant of the hotel who accused him of attempted rape lied to the grand jury and other false statements.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, still charges faces that it sexually assaulted women in New York, but questions about his credibility seem to be changing the case in his favour in a twist that could challenge French policy.
He smiled as he left the courtroom with his wife, Anne Sinclair, at his side.
Until his arrest on May 14, Strauss-Kahn had been a steward of the global economy and a candidate for the French presidential election of 2012 in mind. The French Socialist Party supporters hoped would join the presidential race, but some analysts saw as too tarnished exhilarating.
The scandal, he was forced to resign as head of the Monetary Fund International, May 19. Christine Lagarde, who recently resigned as French Finance Minister, resumed the IMF Tuesday position.
Take advantage of his first taste of freedom since being removed a hours of jetliner bound for Paris after the attack of the so-called, Strauss-Kahn has emerged from the row house where he was assigned to residence on Friday night and was taken with his wife and another couple to Scalinatella, expensive on Upper East Side of Manhattan Italian restaurant.
Strauss-Kahn lawyers want charges dropped.
"We are absolutely convinced that, while it is now a first giant step in the right direction, the next step will lead to a complete rejection of the charges," said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman.
The judge said prosecutors will review the evidence after what they have revealed that the housekeeper lied to the grand jury about his actions after the alleged attack on tax documents and immigration.
Initially, the woman said that after the Strauss-Kahn assaulted, she had cowered in the hallway outside his room until he left and she felt safe to ask for help. Now, prosecutors say, she admitted that she cleaned a room nearby and then returned to start the cleaning of the Strauss-Kahn suite before reporting the incident.
As j. Michael shells out Strauss-Kahn, he told the Court: "I understand that the circumstances of this case have changed substantially, and I accept the risk that it does would be not retreated a little."
"No there is no rush to judgment." People will continue to investigate and review the case as appropriate. »
Strauss-Kahn, whose arrest, House had included an electronic surveillance and armed guard, has agreed to return to the Court, as required, including a hearing July 18.
Its payment of the $ 1 million bail and duty of $ 5 million was returned to him, but his passport was not.
EMERGING ISSUES
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the Court "the facts of the sexual encounter was and is supported", but some details seem to have changed.
The woman's brother told Reuters in Guinea that it was the victim of a smear campaign.
His lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, said after the hearing, that his client story had never faltered and that Strauss-Kahn had bruised evil and a ligament is torn his shoulder.
"The claim that it was consensual is a lie," Thompson told reporters. "It has made a few errors but this does not mean that it is not a rape victim."
The case has turned on the accuser, a Guinean immigrant of 32 years who cleaned up after $3 000 per night at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan where he was staying Strauss-Kahn.
Prosecutors found problems with his asylum application, statement of tax and statements to the grand jury investigation into the case of assault, court documents showed. [ID: nN1E7601DT]
The New York Times CITES law responsible for the application as saying that prosecutors had found possible links between the accuser and those involved in the drug trade and money laundering.
Citing an application of the Act placed official, that Friday, the paper reported that prosecutors in particular, have been alarmed by a telephone call the woman within 28 hours of the attack alleged to a friend who was jailed in Arizona.
The call was recorded, but it is in a special dialect of the Guinean of Puli. When the translation was finally completed on Wednesday, prosecutors were alarmed, said the paper.
"She said words to the effect of,"don't worry, this guy has a lot of money."." I know what I do,'"of the document cited the said officer."
He said her image as a pious Muslim, fervent ruined by experience slowly changed as they questioned him and inconsistencies more came to light.
"Sit-downs with prosecutors became tense, even angry." Originally composed it later collapsed in tears and got down on the ground during the interrogation. It becomes unavailable to the investigators of the Office of the district attorney for days at a time, "said the paper.
He said that the last meeting, on Thursday, is devastating. When investigators he faced the bank records showing the deposition of thousands of dollars in the accounts in his name in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania, the woman, who had said repeatedly that his employment of Sofitel was his only source of income, become silent and turned to counsel for guidance.
"He was without a voice," the paper quoted the official said.
Some commentators suggest that Strauss-Kahn, known as the "great seducer" of French politics could have been implemented.
His arrest has opened the field for several other socialist candidates for the presidential election of April, including the head of the party, Martine Aubry, who trails colleague François Hollande in opinion polls.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who has proposed that Strauss-Kahn for the IMF job, did not comment on the case since his arrest. The case prompted the France debate on equality of sexes and a tradition of media to respect the privacy of the sexual lives of politicians.
Nina Mitz, a former adviser to Strauss-Kahn at the French Ministry of finance, said: "stunning news of today can only make us regret that so much talent was wasted in a moment where we all need it.".
(Other reports by Allison Joyce, Grant McCool, Christine Kearney, Paula Rogo and Bernd Debussmann, Jr. in New York, Mark Hosenball Washington, Marie Maitre, Catherine Bremer and Geert De Clercq in Paris and Saliou Samb in Guinea;) Written by Mark Egan; (Editing by John O'Callaghan and Sandra Maler)
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