Another woman files attempted rape complaint against Strauss-Kahn in France

A French writer filed a criminal complaint today Tuesday June 5 against embattled former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, alleging attempted rape, according to her attorney David Koubbi.

Tristane Banon, 32, filed the new claim, just as a separate New York case against the French financier appeared to be on shaky ground.


A Strauss-Kahn lawyer in France said he had filed a counterclaim against Banon for "false declarations."
French prosecutors are expected to review the complaint and determine whether there is enough evidence to press charges.
Though the alleged attack occurred in 2003, the statute of limitations on attempted rape is 10 years.

Koubbi told CNN the alleged attack had taken place with "extreme violence."
The new legal fireworks came after questions arose about the truthfulness of a housekeeper who alleged that Strauss-Kahn, 62, attacked her in his New York hotel suite in May.
One of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers in New York, Benjamin Brafman, on Monday declined to comment on the allegations in France.
Banon's mother, Socialist politician Anne Mansouret, said shortly after the housekeeper's accusations were splashed across front pages around the world that her daughter had been attacked by Strauss-Kahn in 2003 but that she had discouraged her at the time from filing charges against him.
Mansouret, a member of parliament, said she cautioned Banon not to file a police report at the time for fear it would hurt her journalism career.
On Tuesday she said she had not realized before how much her daughter was affected by the alleged incident.
"At the time, I never thought that it had traumatized her to such a point," she told CNN affiliate network BFM.
Banon "expects to be destroyed" after filing the complaint against Strauss-Kahn, her mother said.
But she must "find the combative instinct that is needed to withstand the shock and say to herself, 'OK, I must do this and I will carry it out,'" Mansouret said.
Strauss-Kahn was never charged in connection with the alleged attack on Banon.
But in light of the charges against Strauss-Kahn after the alleged incident at a Sofitel hotel in New York, Koubbi said a few weeks ago that he and Banon had considered filing a complaint.
Koubbi said the cases were not connected.
"I don't see any reason why these two cases should be joined, because either the prosecutor has enough elements to condemn Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the United States -- and if he does, he should do it -- or he needs to bring two cases together to get a conviction," he said in June.
"In that case, we do not want to participate," he added.
Strauss-Kahn's attorney in France, Leon Lef Forster, did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations in May.
Mansouret recently pulled out of the Socialist Party presidential primaries. Strauss-Kahn had been a front-runner for the party nomination until the New York arrest, and suggestions that the case was floundering have revived talk of his chances in next year's presidential elections.
Mansouret described herself last week as "the woman who embarrasses the Socialist Party."
"I am ... a sort of collateral damage in the DSK affair. I knew for a long time that my political career was sealed with this bomb, but I didn't imagine that this bitter past could be revived so violently," she wrote Friday on the Rue89 website, referring to the alleged attack in New York.
In May, Mansouret said that in 2003, her journalist daughter had interviewed Strauss-Kahn in his office in the National Assembly.
However, after the interview, Banon received a text message from Strauss-Kahn, saying he was not happy with the interview and asking if he could speak with her again, Mansouret said.
After Banon arrived at the address Strauss-Kahn had sent her, he locked the door to the room they were in, took her hand and grabbed her arm, according to Mansouret.
Banon told him to let her go, and the incident ended with the two struggling on the floor, Mansouret said. Banon managed to escape the apartment and locked herself in her car, where she called her mother.
Mansouret said she arrived about an hour and a half later to find her daughter still locked in the car and looking "roughed up." The heel of one shoe was broken, Mansouret recalled.
But Mansouret told her daughter not to file a complaint out of concern that she would become known as Strauss-Kahn's victim.
CNN does not typically identify sexual assault victims, but Mansouret said her daughter gave permission for her name to be disclosed.

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