Image via WikipediaThe hotel maid who accused former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault admitted that she lied to a grand jury about the events surrounding the alleged attack, according to a letter sent from prosecutors to Strauss-Kahn's defense team. (Click here to read the letter)
The 32-year-old woman from Guinea accused Strauss-Kahn of chasing her through his luxury suite in May, trying to pull down her pantyhose and forcing her to perform oral sex.
Strauss-Kahn's semen was found on the woman's dress and she reported the alleged assault, but not as quickly as first thought. In a letter dated June 30, prosecutors that she admitted that she cleaned another room following the encounter with the French politician and then returned to Strauss-Kahn's room and cleaned that as well, contradicting what she told the grand jury.
It was just the latest revelation that has damaged her credibility and undermined the prosecution of Strauss-Kahn. In light of the new questions surrounding the case, a New York judge granted Strauss-Kahn's release from house arrest, though the charges have not been dismissed.
From the beginning, Strauss-Kahn's attorneys have claimed to have the hotel encounter wasn't forcible, and that they have unreleased information that could "gravely undermine the credibility" of the housekeeper. The defense was using private investigators to aggressively check out the victim's background and her story, but the New York Times reported that it was investigators for the prosecution who uncovered discrepancies.
Among the other revelations revealed in the prosecutor's letter to the defense team:
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076147.shtml
It was just the latest revelation that has damaged her credibility and undermined the prosecution of Strauss-Kahn. In light of the new questions surrounding the case, a New York judge granted Strauss-Kahn's release from house arrest, though the charges have not been dismissed.
From the beginning, Strauss-Kahn's attorneys have claimed to have the hotel encounter wasn't forcible, and that they have unreleased information that could "gravely undermine the credibility" of the housekeeper. The defense was using private investigators to aggressively check out the victim's background and her story, but the New York Times reported that it was investigators for the prosecution who uncovered discrepancies.
Among the other revelations revealed in the prosecutor's letter to the defense team:
- The woman's asylum application described how she and her husband were persecuted and beaten by regime forces in Guinea. She claimed her husband was imprisoned, tortured and subsequently died at the hands of police. The woman later admitted to prosecutors that her account was false and that she had been coached by another man to create the fictional account for the purposes of the application.
- The woman twice relayed to investigators emotional accounts of how she was gang-raped in Guinea. She later said those accounts were false and were similarly used for the asylum application process. However, she did still claim that she was a rape victim, though the details did not match her original story.
- The woman admitted to using a friend's child to fraudulently claim an additional dependent and increase her tax refund. She also misrepresented her income to maintain her housing.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076147.shtml
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