Story highlights
Writer Tristane Banon alleges that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her in Paris in 2003
He has said her version of events is "imaginary"
Police will pass a report based on their questioning to a judge
Sexual assault charges filed against Strauss-Kahn in New York were dropped last month
Ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the French woman who has accused him of attempted rape, Tristane Banon, appeared before police in Paris Thursday.
During the two-and-a-half-hour session, termed a confrontation in France, the two parties were asked questions by police without lawyers present.
The police will now file a report, which will be turned over to a judge. The judge then has three options: to drop the case, open it for further investigation or proceed with a trial.
Strauss-Kahn made no comment upon leaving the police station.
Banon filed a complaint against Strauss-Kahn in France, alleging he attempted to sexually assault her in 2003; he has filed a counter-suit alleging slander.
Banon’s mother, Socialist politician Anne Mansouret, has said she discouraged Banon from filing charges against Strauss-Kahn at the time of the alleged assault for fear it would hurt her journalism career.
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 his accuser in a now-dismissed sexual assault case.
As head of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn had the same protections as diplomats, his attorneys wrote in court papers. U.S. courts recognize those protections as “customary international law” even though the United States has not signed the U.N. convention that specifically includes IMF officials, they wrote.
Though Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF managing director after his arrest in May, his immunity continued while he was under house arrest in New York, his lawyers told a New York state judge in the Bronx, where the lawsuit was filed.
Manhattan prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against him in August amid questions about the credibility of his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, who sued Strauss-Kahn as prosecutors prepared to dismiss the case.
CNN’s Niki Cook contributed to this report.
