Sexual-assault Case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn dismissed by Supreme Court in Manhattan

The sexual-assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was dismissed on 23 August 2011 bringing an abrupt end to what had been a three-month criminal investigation. The dismissal order was issued by Justice Michael J. Obus of State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting an immigrant hotel housekeeper after she entered his suite to clean it.

Strauss-Kahn was taken into custody on 14 May 2011 aboard an Air France jet at Kennedy International Airport. Nafissatou Diallo, an African immigrant had accused Mr Strauss-Kahn of chasing her in his luxury hotel suite in New York on 14 May and subsequently forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus mentioned that there was no reason to stop the dismissal of the case after Manhattan prosecutors made the request on the grounds that the alleged victim, the 33-year old hotel maid from Guinea, had been inconsistent with several of her testimonies.

Strauss-Kahn also faces charges over a claim by French writer Tristane Banon that he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview.