New report implies Strauss-Kahn set up in sexual assault case

[1]

Months after former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, an investigative report shedding fresh light on the incident implies that the one time French presidential hopeful may have been set up in a conspiracy to discredit him ahead of the country's 2012 polls.

The report titled 'What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?' published in the New York Review of Books states that Strauss-Kahn's Blackberry, which the IMF chief referred to as his 'IMF BlackBerry' had been 'hacked' and later went missing. It also describes a video footage of two hotel staff performing a three minute 'dance of celebration' and 'high- fiving' each other after learning that hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo had accused Strauss-Kahn of assaulting her on May 14.

Author of the article Edward Epstein said, "I didn't say it was a political conspiracy but I would say that people wanted to find evidence of an indiscretion that could derail either his candidacy or even [his work at] the fund." He said Strauss-Kahn was the victim of a conspiracy to "destroy him as a political force" by having him convicted of the rape of a 32-year-old chambermaid in his suite.

The report says that Strauss-Kahn had received a text message on the morning of the incident from a woman friend who worked at the Paris offices of the UMP, President Nicolas Sarkozy's political party. She had warned Strauss-Kahn, 'who was then pulling ahead of Sarkozy in the polls', that a private e-mail he had sent from his BlackBerry to his wife, Anne Sinclair, had been read at the UMP offices in Paris.

"It is unclear how the UMP offices might have received this e-mail, but if it had come from his IMF BlackBerry, he had reason to suspect he might be under electronic surveillance in New York. He had already been warned by a friend in the French diplomatic corps that an effort would be made to embarrass him with a scandal.

"The warning that his BlackBerry might have been hacked was therefore all the more alarming," the report said, adding that the Strauss-Kahn later lost the phone and it has still not been found. The report further said footage from a video surveillance camera shows 'two men high-five each other, clap their hands, and do what looks like an extraordinary dance of celebration that lasts for three minutes'.

This comes minutes after they learn that Diallo had complained of being sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn.