Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2011, reporting news from 1 July 2011. Manhattan prosecutors dropped the criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn in August 2011, the hotel worker’s civil suit was settled in December 2012, and Christine Lagarde succeeded him at the IMF in July 2011.
When the arrest of the former IMF managing director became public, we questioned some of the coincidences surrounding both the manner and the “coincidental”, delicate timing of the arrest in our article Strauss-Kahn: guilty or an international conspiracy?. Today, the conspiracy theory is starting to gain ground.
According to The New York Times, the alleged victim, the hotel maid who reported the rape, has repeatedly contradicted herself in her statements, to the point of giving three different versions of what happened. What’s more, after an intensive investigation, the hotel maid appears to be closely linked to criminal activity, and there are signs that some time ago she was in the sights of the US justice system for involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering.
In addition, according to sources cited by the NYT, the alleged victim had a phone conversation with a jailed man connected to all kinds of fraud and to drug trafficking and money laundering, a man who had reportedly been closely connected to the American “jet set”. That call took place hours before the maid’s encounter with Strauss-Kahn.
According to other sources, in the two weeks before her encounter with Strauss-Kahn, the alleged victim’s phone showed repeated calls from several phone numbers that can no longer be traced because they have since been disconnected, and, mysteriously, from unknown callers.
Prosecutors will release Strauss-Kahn from house arrest on his own recognizance, and the defense is now more convinced than ever that the former IMF chief will go free without charges, since the alleged victim’s testimony is not credible.
Some think the hotel maid may have planned this “sting” with several associates from her “mafia” circle. Others think that behind the plot are high-ranking figures who wanted to get rid of Strauss-Kahn and force him out of the IMF, which they have achieved. Once again, the controversy is on.
Further reading
- Implausible coincidences in the Strauss-Kahn case
Featured image: Guillaume Paumier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
