Prosecutors say they have evidence ex-IMF chief sexually assaulted young French writer, but he will not face charges
French prosecutors said there was evidence Dominique Strauss-Kahnsexually assaulted a young French writer, but they have dropped the investigation against him for attempted rape.
The legal case over claims the former head of the IMF had attacked Tristane Banon was officially abandoned after the French prosecutor's office said no legal action could be brought.
In a statement, the office declared that a three-month police investigation had found insufficient evidence to charge Strauss-Kahn with attempted rape.
It added, however, that it recognised there were "facts that could qualify as sexual aggression".
It cited the three-year statute of limitations for sexual assault and concluded: "However, having been committed in 2003 and not having been revealed until July 2011, these facts cannot be prosecuted."
Banon, a 32-year-old author and journalist, learned that her case would not be prosecuted on the same day she published a book, said to be a "novelised" version of the alleged attack.
Her lawyer, David Koubbi, had already vowed to bring a civil case against Strauss-Kahn if the criminal action was dropped. This would mean an independent investigating magistrate being appointed to reconsider all the evidence.
Banon and Strauss-Kahn were among at least 12 people interviewed over the writer's claim that he tried to rape her when she went to interview him for a book.
Banon said Strauss-Kahn behaved like a "rutting chimpanzee" during the alleged attack at an unfurnished Paris apartment in February 2003.
Strauss-Kahn described the allegations as "imaginary". She claimed the assault amounted to attempted rape, for which the statute of limitations is 10 years.
Banon's book, Le Bal des Hypocrites (The Hypocrites' Ball), is described as a 128-page novelisation of events in her life.
It appears to be the latest salvo in a vitriolic battle of words between her and Strauss-Kahn, once tipped to become the next president of France.
Banon does not directly name him in the novel, but describes a man who lured her to his flat and who she claims she had to fight off as the "pig" or "baboon".
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has admitted to police investigating Banon's claims that he made a pass at her and tried to kiss her, but denied any violence.
He has lodged a countersuit for defamation and threatened to sue media which repeat the allegations.
After Strauss-Kahn, once the French Socialist party's presidential hope, was arrested and accused of the sexual assault and attempted rape of a New York hotel maid in May, Banon said she spent weeks deciding whether to press charges.
When the US case against Strauss-Kahn collapsed in August because of doubts about the credibility of his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, Banon made a formal complaint to the Paris prosecutor.
Strauss-Kahn returned to France with his third wife, television journalist Anne Sinclair, but his hopes of leading the country were finished.
In her book, an extract of which was published by Paris Match magazine, Banon writes of feeling sick when the man, assumed to be Strauss-Kahn, was being hailed as the next president before his arrest in New York.
"It was nine o'clock that Saturday morning and they were talking about the baboon on the television. He is a superhero, a Messiah, saviour … capable of everything.
"He would revive the country, lower taxes, understand the weakest and bring happiness and calm to each French household.
"They showed pictures of him; in action in the four corners of the world. Superman.
"When I saw him, his stare made me freeze, the television screen could not protect me, his smile was only for me, it forced its way into my stomach and the image only disappeared when I threw up my lunch.
"Suddenly his message on my telephone came back to me: 'So, I scared you?' That was eight years ago.
"The years have passed, but nothing has completely effaced the memory."
Banon, who is the goddaughter of Strauss-Kahn's ex-wife, first revealed the alleged attack on a French TV chatshow in 2007.
"I eventually spoke about it but I was too smiling when I did," she writes. "I should have cried so that people understood the real ravages it had caused.
"But alcohol had given my cheeks a rosy tint and, like Molière, I wanted to laugh about what had made me cry inside."
Banon says the show's other guests had waited until the cameras and microphones were off to say: "We knew, but …"
"But what? Nobody must make any waves, and above all not let the public know. Only the elite must know, only those of the elite know how to hold their tongues."
In response to why she had not complained to the police at the time, Banon writes: "Put yourself in my place."
It was widely reported that Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret – a Socialist politician – had dissuaded her daughter from going to the police, telling her she would be known for the rest of her life as "the girl who had a problem with the politician".
Banon wrote that her decision in June to make an official complaint for "attempted rape" was "taking the combat to the enemy".
In the book, published on Thursday, she also expresses shock that supporters have abandoned her.
"How many promised to give evidence if, in future, they were called to do so? How many assured me of unwavering support?
"How many suddenly disappeared the moment they were asked to sign a written declaration, when they had to photocopy their identity card to authenticate the statement?"
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