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Paris (Reuters)-ex-IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn inched closer Tuesday to have U.S. sex assault charges against him dropped even if a complaint of assault in France could pose an additional obstacle for any political comeback.
The New York Post quoted an unnamed senior investigator, as saying that the prosecutors would drop their allegations to a court hearing in two weeks, or even earlier, due to doubts about the credibility of the alleged victim.
However, a legal claim by French writer Tristane Banon, which argues that Strauss-Kahn tried to assault her in Paris in 2003, had to be filed later Tuesday, his lawyer told Reuters.
Signs that the U.S. accusations are unraveling have set off a round of political fighting that threatens to poison the run-up to an election Presidency April 2012 that Strauss-Kahn had been tipped to win for the left until his arrest in may for allegedly trying to rape a waitress New York Hotel.
The French left, furious that their star candidate has been all but eliminated from the electoral race, dismissed the case Banon as further evidence that the enemies of Strauss-Kahn are determined to carry it.
"The fate of Strauss-Kahn was snatched from him. All his friends are wondering how it is possible that a man who is the Director of the IMF and a presidential candidate finds himself in jail a few days before he submits his candidacy, "said Socialist Deputy Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, a close ally of Strauss-Kahn.
"This is clearly a conspiracy against the Socialist Party," he told LCI television.
Question about allegation of Banon, who first voiced in a TV show of 2007 as Strauss-Kahn beep, Cambadélis said: "This is manipulation by a young woman who wants to extort funds from Dominique through a rape complaint."
Banon Attorney David Koubbi defended his client and the time of his action. He told French television M6 about a plot against Strauss-Kahn was "nonsense".
STRAUSS-KAHN'S FUTURE UNCLEAR
The case can be depleted after a Banon preliminary survey, due to lack of evidence. But opinion polls from the weekend suggest that more than half of French voters think that the political career of Strauss-Kahn is already over.
Francois Hollande, leader of election of the new left, was dragged into cheating on Tuesday, when asked during a trip to the French Caribbean island of Martinique to respond to the accusation of Banon that had known about the incident of 2003 and encouraged at the time to press charges.
"I want to put an end to this controversy, rumors and gossip," Hollande told reporters in Fort-de-France. "This is all becoming quite unbearable".
A judge issued Strauss-Kahn from house arrest on Friday, although the charge of attempted rape remained in place, after prosecutors said the details of the hotel maid changed in its history.
"We know that this case is not sustainable," The New York Post quoted its source as saying on Tuesday.
Abrupt reversals of Fortune's Strauss-Kahn have angered many French, who considered a decision by the New York police to parade him in front of cameras disheveled and handcuffed after his arrest as a trial by media and a serious violation of his rights.
The Socialist Party, struggling to find a candidate who can match Strauss-Kahn's know-how and experience, said it is very unlikely that he could make an offer for the end of October party primary, but has not closed the door if it did.
"Strauss-Kahn is a man who is hungry for power," said Cambadelis. "He is in a period of recovery, rehabilitation, reconstruction, is a man that was hurt."
Strauss-Kahn plans to bring a counterclaim against Banon, who said that the French tried to force himself upon her during an interview in an apartment in Paris at the age of 22.
(Additional Reporting by Pauline Mevel in Paris, Anthony Boadle Washington and Dominique bareto in Fort-de-France; edited by Robert Woodward)
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