Former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of rape attempt and now released without bail in New-York, has claimed that he had become the target of a plot organized by Russian PM Vladimir Putin.
The former world finance chief believes that Russia and France have hatched the whole story to get him fired from the International Monetary Fund to stop him running for the French presidency.
A French politician Mr. Claude Bartolone assured French television news channel BFMTV: ‘He told me this when we spoke on the phone in Paris on April 29… He said the Russians and notably Putin had allied themselves with France to try to have him fired from the IMF, to stop him running for the presidency.”
According to Mr. Bartolone, 62-year-old Dominique Strauss-Kahn, still facing charges of trying to rape a New York hotel maid, has warned him to “watch out and be careful” because “they could have tapped the phone.”
In his French TV interview Claude Bartolone dramatically confessed: “When I heard of his arrest on Sunday, I recalled this conversation and felt utterly baffled. I just can’t get over what has happened to him.”
Charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn include several upper-level crimes, including a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.
The most serious crime of these implicates a punishment of up to 25 years in prison.
Though these charges against the former IMF chief have not been reduced, prosecutors agreed to release Dominique Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance after he had promised to appear in court next time.
Prosecutors admitted that there were significant credibility issues with the New-York hotel maid because investigators now think that the accuser has lied about her actions in the alleged attack and about her own background.
“We believed from the beginning that this case was not what it appeared to be and we are absolutely convinced that while today is a first giant step in the right direction, the next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges,” Brafman Benjamin, Strauss-Kahn’s Lawyer, told newsmen after Dominique Strauss-Kahn has walked out of court free.
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