Post date: Mar 28, 2012 12:37:36 PM
PARIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 29, 2011) (REUTERS) - Former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn prepared on Wednesday (March 28) to fight on two fronts as hearings were due to start in New York in a civil case, two days after he was put under formal investigation in a prostitution case in France.
Disgraced former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn prepares to fight on two fronts as hearings in a civil case brought by a woman who accused him of trying to rape her in a Sofitel hotel suite last May begins two days after Strauss-Kahn was put under investigation in a prostitution scandal in the northern French city of Lille
Strauss-Kahn was formally put under investigation on Monday in a prostitution scandal in the northern city of Lille, on counts that could expose him to up to 20 years in jail.
Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn said he was being hounded for his "libertine ways" and that they would challenge a judicial inquiry where he is suspected of participating in pimping in France.
Strauss-Kahn's latest problems come in a week when the man once tipped to become France's next president is back under fire in the U.S., too.
Hearings in a civil case brought by a woman, Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of trying to rape her in a Sofitel hotel suite last May begin on Wednesday in New York.
"The lawyers for Madame Diallo are certainly going to attempt to bring the Lille matter back to New York and use it as proof that Mr. Strauss-Kahn has a difficult and problematic physical and sexual relationship with women in general and they are going to try and use that to show that the case brought by Madame Diallo is solid," law specialist Christopher Mesnooh told Reuters TV on Wednesday.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers who are set to defend him in a Bronx courtroom on the first day of the civil trial will argue that the French case has no connection with the American one and that it could be detrimental to Strauss-Kahn:
"The lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn are going to argue that the matter in Lille is irrelevant, it is separate and it would be very prejudicial to the legal position of Monsieur Strauss-Kahn. The judge may agree with Mr. Strauss-Kahn on that. If however he allows it into the discussion then yes it is likely to have a significant impact on the jurors in the Bronx," Mesnooh said.
The New York affair halted his career and plans to announce days later that he would run for French presidency.
U.S. prosecutors dropped criminal charges, however, saying they had doubts about Diallo's credibility, and he returned to Paris.
Strauss-Kahn is now jobless and lives a life mainly behind closed doors.
On the streets of Paris, the saga seemed to be tiring the French.
"I think this is a political affair. I think we are talking too much about this, we should leave him alone and stop all of this," said Marion Ricou.
"I think this is ridiculous, it blown out of proportion, it's a private affair and his dalliances don't interest me," said another passer-by, Serge Karasec.
Attempts to relaunch his career as an economist on the world conference circuit have been troubled. He gave a speech in China late last year but had to be bundled into a recent meeting at Britain's Cambridge University under heavy security.
Last Tuesday, he canceled an appearance at an event in Brussels alongside the Eurogroup's Jean-Claude Junker following protests from members of the European Parliament.