DSK case: Maid breaks silence, wants Kahn to face trial

New York: Breaking her silence for the first time, Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, appeared on television and said she wanted the former IMF chief to face trial.

“I want justice. I want him to go to jail,” Nafissatou Diallo told ABC News.  “I want him to know that there is some places you cannot use your money, you cannot use your power when you do something like this,” she said.   “I was so afraid, I was so scared.”

The 64-year-old, former International Monetary Fund director Strauss-Kahn had allegedly forced Diallo to perform oral sex in a suite of Manhattan hotel on 14 May. He was taken into custody a few minutes before his flight departed for Paris.

The sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn has been weakened after it emerged that Diallo, a 32-year-old maid from Guinea, may have been lying to prosecutors and had criminal connections.

In a fresh development, a French TV personality has become the latest high-profile figure to face questioning by investigators examining a writer’s claims that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her eight years ago.

The new round of questioning came on Monday as a New York hotel maid spoke out publicly for the first time about separate accusations that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her. Strauss-Kahn has denied wrongdoing in both cases, but the claims have devastated the ambitions of a man who ran the International Monetary Fund and was considered a top contender for France’s presidency.

Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, a longtime anchor of France’s national evening news, was questioned in Paris on Monday, a judicial official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way. French writer Tristane Banon says Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 during an interview for a book. French media have reported that Banon told investigators that she told Poivre d’Arvor and several other people about the incident.

Strauss-Kahn, in recent weeks, was released from house arrest and his lawyers have asked government prosecutors to drop the case. But now the maid has broken her silence for the first time and spoke to Newsweek and ABC News.  Some observers suggest that Diallo’s speaking out will put public and media pressure on the investigators to keep digging.

Strauss-Kahn’s next court appearance is on 1 August.

PTI