Story highlights
Tristane Banon says her life changed after Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest
She does not refer to Strauss-Kahn by name in the book
She reprints 29 e-mails she received from journalists worldwide
The French writer who accused former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape published a book Thursday in which she described how her life changed once Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York in an unrelated case.
Tristane Banon, 32, never mentions Strauss-Kahn by name in “Le Bal des Hypocrites,” or “The Hypocrites’ Ball.” Instead, she refers to him 15 times as “the baboon man” and “the pig” – but left little doubt whom she is referring to.
Banon recounted waking up at 3 a.m. on May 15 to news “the baboon man” had been arrested.
“He will no longer harm,” she wrote. “He tried to hurt one too many in New York.”
Strauss-Kahn was pulled off a Paris-bound plane in May and arrested over accusations he sexually assaulted a maid in a luxury hotel suite in New York. Manhattan prosecutors dropped the charges against him in August amid questions about the credibility of his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.
Banon filed a criminal complaint in July against Strauss-Kahn alleging attempted rape in a 2003 incident. On Thursday, the Paris prosecutor’s office found there was not enough evidence to support the charges, although authorities said Strauss-Kahn admitted “sexual aggression” against her.
In her 120-page book, Banon recounts the media frenzy that followed Strauss-Kahn’s arrest and how quickly she became hounded by journalists, old acquaintances and random people on Facebook.
Only a few names are used in the book – Banon’s dog, lawyer and two friends. However, it is not hard to identify the left-wing politicians she heavily criticizes for not speaking out on her behalf.
“Can someone lose a heart like they lose kilos?” Banon writes in a clear reference to Francois Hollande, the new favorite to be the Socialist presidential candidate in 2012. Hollande lost a considerable amount of weight in 2010.
In the book, Banon describes in detail the media frenzy that surrounded her at the time, writing of endless phone calls and text messages from journalists around the world. She publishes 29 e-mails in the book she received from French and foreign journalists requesting an interview.
The book touches on Banon’s reasons for taking her time to decide whether or not to press charges against Strauss-Kahn in the 2003 incident. Banon was criticized in the French press for hesitating on this point and for never speaking to the press.
Banon wrote that she was not going to be pressured into making a decision.
“I don’t want a jury made up of the media to decide for me, I don’t want them to drag me into vengeance. So I keep quiet, I remain silent when really I want to scream, to yell, to break my television, to eat the newspaper, destroy my radio,” she wrote.
