New York judge set to dismiss Strauss-Kahn charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge was expected to drop criminal sexual assault charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday and free him to return to France after prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed due to the faulty credibility of his accuser.

The man once seen as the leading contender to be the next president of France will get his passport back and walk away free of criminal liability if New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus accepts the prosecutors' request for dismissal.

While the judge has the authority to keep the case alive, legal experts say it would be extremely unlikely for him to reject the request for dismissal. The hearing was due to start at 1130 EDT (4:30 p.m. BST).

Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Monday outlined how they lost faith in the accuser, hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea who alleged Strauss-Kahn attacked her in his luxury hotel suite and forced her to perform oral sex.

While her account of the assault remained steadfast, Diallo told a series of lies about her past and about what happened immediately after the incident in the $3,000-a-night suite in New York's Sofitel hotel on May 14, undermining her credibility, prosecutors said.

Physical evidence was unable to prove lack of consent, leaving the case hinging on the believability of the accuser. But with her testimony changing again and again and as more and more lies about her past emerged, prosecutors concluded in a 25-page filing, "If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so."

NOT CLEAR YET

Three months ago, Strauss-Kahn was the world's leading financial diplomat and a confidant of presidents rescuing debt-ridden nations. His downfall was shocking. Pulled from an Air France first-class seat by police, he was thrown into New York City's Rikers Island jail on charges of attempted rape.

Yet he is not entirely in the clear. Diallo has filed a civil lawsuit against him, and he faces a separate inquiry in France from a writer who alleged Strauss-Kahn forced himself on her during a 2003 interview in Paris.

Diallo's lawyers are also taking the case to France where they had been trying to establish a pattern of sexual abuse by Strauss-Kahn and had tried to contact other women who may have had similar encounters.

Daillo's French lawyer Thibaut de Montbrial told Reuters that he filed a complaint on Monday in Paris alleging that an ally of Strauss-Kahn's telephoned one woman and offered her money in exchange for her silence.

A lawyer for Diallo had requested a special prosecutor to continue the criminal case. But about one hour before Tuesday's hearing was set to begin, the judge dismissed the request, clearing the way for him to dismiss sexual assault charges.

"The application is denied in all respects," New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus wrote in his decision.

The case pitted supporters of Strauss-Kahn who said he was the victim of an overzealous U.S. criminal justice system versus backers of Diallo who complained it was an example of how sexual assault victims being denied justice.

POLITICAL FUTURE

Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, could make a dramatic return to French public life, but with his image tarnished by widespread reporting in France about his sexual behaviour, most political analysts doubt he would risk competing with President Nicolas Sarkozy on April's ballot.

"Whatever has been said, a man with the abilities of Dominique Strauss-Kahn can be useful to his country in the months and years to come," Francois Hollande, the frontrunner among six candidates for the Socialist primary, told France Inter radio.

Asked whether Strauss-Kahn could take part in the October vote to choose the party's presidential candidate, Hollande said: "That depends on him.

Strauss-Kahn has maintained his innocence and his allies say he plans to speak only when back in France and free.

French Socialists cheered the expected dropping of charges and said they hoped Strauss-Kahn would return to public life where his expertise on global economics was sorely needed.

Socialist presidential hopeful Manuel Valls called the affair "an extreme waste for Strauss-Kahn and for France" and even ruling party Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said he deserved better and looked forward to listening to his ideas.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York, Thierry Leveque and Catherine Bremer in Paris; Editing by Mark Egan and Anthony Boadle)

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