FRENCH POLICE plan to set up a face-to-face confrontation between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the French writer who has accused him of trying to rape her.
The meeting between the former head of the International Monetary Fund and his accuser, Tristane Banon, was ordered by the Paris prosecutor as part of a preliminary police inquiry into her complaint.
Ms Banon has alleged the 62-year-old politician assaulted her in a Paris apartment in 2003 as she was interviewing him for a book. She described him wrestling with her “like a rutting chimpanzee”, forcing her to kick and shout before escaping.
Ms Banon first made the allegations in a television TV chat show in 2007, when Mr Strauss-Kahn’s name was bleeped out, and lodged a formal complaint earlier this year after the politician’s arrest on separate sexual assault charges in the US.
The prosecutor’s office hopes the confrontation – expected to take place next week – will help it decide whether to begin a formal investigation into the allegations.
In a television interview earlier this week, Ms Banon said she hoped to have the chance to put her allegations directly to Mr Strauss-Kahn. “I want him to look me in the eye and tell me my version of events is imaginary,” she said. This followed the politician’s own television interview last weekend, in which he dismissed her claims as “imaginary” and “slanderous”.
Mr Strauss-Kahn returned home to France this month and described as a “moral error” his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid that led to his arrest and a three-month legal battle.
The US charges were dropped due to doubts about the maid’s credibility.
However, Mr Strauss-Kahn’s efforts to turn the page have been hampered by the accusations from Ms Banon. It is widely expected that the prosecutor will drop the case for a lack of evidence so long after the event, but Ms Banon has said she will take a civil case.
Hoping to restore his reputation, Mr Strauss-Kahn gave his first interview on prime-time television last weekend. He concededthat he longer had any chance of the French presidency and said he had “lost everything” as a result of his arrest, but did not rule out a role in government.
His performance – watched by 13.5 million – drew a cool response. Opinion polls show most French people want him to stay out of politics, and one survey found one in three thought his TV appearance did nothing to improve his image.
Mr Strauss-Kahn also faces a civil case in New York over the incident at the Manhattan hotel.