Strauss-Kahn, Rape Bid Accuser Uphold Versions of 2003 Encounter

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn had a two-hour face-to-face confrontation at a Paris police station on Thursday with the French writer who accuses him of a 2003 rape attempt. Photo by BGNES

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Tristane Banon, the Frenchwoman who says he tried to rape her, confirmed their accounts of the events in 2003 during Thursday's face-to-face confrontation.

The announcement was made by Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Henri Leclerc, who refused to reveal further details about the meeting and told journalists that his client had nothing to apologize for.

During Thursday's two-and-a-half hour session, which was organized at Banon's request, the two parties were asked questions by police without lawyers present.

This kind of confrontation is a practice sometimes used in France to help officials decide if a case is worth pursuing.

The police report from the meeting will be filed to a judge who will decide whether to drop the case, open it for further investigation or proceed with a trial.

The Paris prosecutor's office is investigating Tristane Banon's claims that Strauss-Kahn attempted to sexually assault her during an interview for a book in 2003.

Strauss-Kahn has termed the accusations "imaginary" and has filed a counter-suit alleging slander.

In an interview with French TV station TF1 earlier this month, Strauss-Kahn said he met with Banon recently and "I said the truth to her in this meeting. There was no act of aggression, there was no violence. ... The version that was presented was imaginary."

On Monday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn asked a judge in New York to dismiss a civil suit filed there by the Guinean hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, asserting that the former IMF chief had diplomatic immunity.

Manhattan prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against him in August after his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, was exposed as an unreliable witness.

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