French Writer to File New Sex Assault Charge

The Guardian reports:

A French writer who claims Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her nine years ago is to file an official complaint, her lawyer has announced.

Tristane Banon previously described the attack, which happened when she was in her early 20s, in a television programme in 2007, when she called Strauss-Kahn, whose name was bleeped out, a "rutting chimpanzee."

She consulted a lawyer at the time, but was persuaded not to take action by her mother, a regional councillor in the Socialist party and friend of the Strauss-Kahn family. Banon is goddaughter to Strauss-Kahn's second wife.

Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said: "We are planning to make a complaint. I am working with her."

Koubbi said Banon, now 31, was "literally blown over" when she heard the claims Strauss-Kahn had attacked a hotel chambermaid in New York. "At the same time, she was certainly not surprised," he said.

Across France, after the shock of Strauss-Kahn's arrest on sex charges in New York, speculation, self-pity and conspiracy theories have blossomed.