(Reuters) - Prosecutors on Monday appeared set to drop sexual assault charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a stunning reversal in the case against a man who many had seen as the next president of France.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office will recommend to a judge that the case be dismissed after they lost faith in the accuser, a 32-year-old hotel maid from Guinea, due to lies she told about her past, New York news media reported.
Strauss-Kahn, who has denied the allegations, was the leading contender for the April 2012 presidential elections until Nafissatou Diallo accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on May 14 at New York's Sofitel Hotel.
He was arrested and forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund a few days later.
Diallo was due to meet with prosecutors at 3 p.m., and they were expected to inform her the case was being dropped, said Kenneth Thompson, the woman's lawyer.
Strauss-Kahn was due to appear in court on Tuesday, at which point the dismissal of charges could be a mere formality if prosecutors make public their decision on Monday.
Diallo's lawyers said they would request a special prosecutor to pursue the criminal case, though legal experts said such a move would have little chance of succeeding.
But nor would Strauss-Kahn be totally in the clear. He still faces a civil lawsuit filed by Diallo on August 8 and a complaint from French writer Tristane Banon who said he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview. Authorities in Paris are considering whether to press charges in that case.
Prosecutors initially trumpeted Diallo as a credible witness and her testimony helped convince a grand jury to formally charge Strauss-Kahn, but the case has teetered since late June when prosecutors disclosed that Diallo fabricated a story about being gang-raped for her U.S. asylum application and lied about other aspects of her past.
Read more: Reuters
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