Is the Head of the IMF a Sex Criminal?

Your understanding is as deficient as your grammar. The only way to "stop" him from leaving was to arrest him

The probe was marked from the outset by bitter debate between Friel and Alonso, two sources said. Alonso wanted to charge DSK fast. Friel said the case was still shaky. She lost the argument and the investigation was taken out of her hands, the sources said.

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The only way to "stop" him from leaving was to arrest him. Otherwise the law has no authority to restrict his movements.

I'd bet my last croissant that the average gal in New York or Chicago or Houston is generally unaware that many French women live with a level of culturally sanctioned sexual harassment that would drive them crazy. Who knew?

Not I, for one. I've sat in Parisian cafes, lingering over my café au lait and watched a parade of French women, teens to octogenarians, all the while trying to deconstruct what it is about them that's so stylish: Their deft use of accessories? Good haircuts? Thin waists and big belts?

Never once did it occur to me that in dressing to draw attention, they'd be drawing attentions they didn't dare demur. Because French women project a sense of personal power, my imagination didn't wander in the direction of their possible powerlessness. But it's the unwanted quandary of working women everywhere: an advance by the boss who pegs job promotions or salary increases to sexual availability.

I've always bought the Francophile line that French men are so very charming, that French women have a je ne seis quoi style, that sweet nothings are somehow more romantic when uttered with a French accent than a Texas twang.

Has the mystique of French fashion and romance obscured the reality of French sexual politics? Perhaps. Add French insistence on the privacy of one's personal life to the mix, and you've got a perfect recipe for sexual exploitation in the workplace.

"People have started raising questions about the relations between men and women in France," says Hélène Périvier, co-director of the gender program at the Institut d'Études Politiques. She tells the New York Times, "And those questions won't go away."

To someone of the bra-burning, Equal Rights Amendment-demanding generation, this response to the phenomenon of the sexualized workplace sounds mild -- even a few decades late.

Between ‘’black Monday’’ and ‘’holy Friday’’, DSK’s friends -- elected officials, functionaries, former colleagues, business leaders, friends of the family -- got together to talk about him, and together, step by step, put together an informal profile. Without letting themselves get swept up in the tide of prevailing public opinion, they conducted a discreet, and perhaps overdue, examination of conscience. In pairs and small groups, in cafés and country homes, they analyzed the floor plan of the Sofitel suite and attempted to recreate the scenario, minute by minute. They were awed by how far DSK had fallen, how fast, and ‘’live’’ he was for all to see -- and they were rarely sure that their friend was entirely beyond reproach.
The only "profile" they rejected out of hand was that of a violent man."Dominique runs at the slightest sign of conflict!" "He never spanked his kids." "He’s not a courageous man." A relative said: ‘’He’s too lazy to force anybody."
Passionately committed to the process, each one looked squarely at what they knew about DSK. "I don’t know what he did in New York, but I know how he was at Bercy [the French Finance Ministry headquarters] and in Washington", says Stéphane Boujnah, who was DSK’s advisor when the latter was Finance Minister and who now heads the Santander bank in Paris. He remembers how quickly DSK rallied even the most diehard technocrats at Bercy; how prodigious his memory was; how he played the financial crisis to advantage to morph the International Monetary Fund, that crusty and much disparaged institution, into a lever for global rescue; and his talent for explaining France to the world and the world to the French

Prosecutors said they were stymied in their attempts to obtain more information from the woman after Thompson, her lawyer, failed to make her available for questioning for 19 days after he cut off the June 9 interview

Amazing that that French laws allow a civil suit to be file in so late a manner.

Strauss-Kahn went on the offensive against his French accuser Tuesday evening, saying through his legal team that he planned to file his own criminal complaint of slander against her.

Tristane Banon, a young journalist, said he was sexually assaulted in 2003 by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and has indicated that it planned to file a criminal complaint.

The facts which it claims to have suffered were discussed during a television show Thierry Ardisson and resumed since in many recent articles. In essence, she said: " He [DSK] wanted me to hold her hand to respond, then the arm ... We ended up fighting, we fought on the ground, I gave a kick He undid my bra, he tried to remove my jeans. When we fought, I said the word "rape" to scare him, that he was not scared . "

What offenses may be charged to DSK if these facts were proven?

The Penal Code criminalizes, with different levels of severity, two behaviors:

- The crime of sexual assault, punishable in Article 222-22 of the Penal Code, which states: " It is an infringement of sexual assault committed sexual violence, coercion, threat or surprise (...). "

Jurisprudence (Poitiers CA January 15, 1999), for example, condemned a hotel owner to three months suspended prison sentence and a fine of 3000 francs for the sexual assault of an apprentice waiter. It was busy to clean a hotel room led by the accused, he had tried to kiss her, had fondled her breasts and did fall on the bed, the Teenage waitress s It was discussed and had threatened to prevent the wife of the perpetrator.

- The crime of rape, punishable with Article 222-23 of the Penal Code: " Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, committed against another person by violence, coercion, threat or surprise a rape. (...) "

The fundamental difference between rape and sexual assault is the act of penetration: if there was penetration, it is a rape, if it is a sexual assault.

The legal consequences of this characterization is extremely important, especially in terms of punishment, since rape is punishable by 15 years in prison, against five years for sexual assault. Another consequence of this characterization, particularly important in the case of Tristan Banon is the prescription: the case of rape, the requirement is 10 years from the date of the facts, if s' acts of sexual assault, the requirement is 3 years.

It is important to note that the attempted rape is subject to the same limitation rules that rape "consumed", ie 10 years.

These facts could they still be prosecuted today?

The victim claims that the attack took place in 2002, 9 years ago. Therefore, if it wishes his complaint to be admissible in court, it is essential that it shows she was the victim of rape, or at least attempted. Indeed, if the allegations are "only" constitute sexual assault, they will be prescribed.

The demonstration of an attempted rape could be tricky for two reasons.

First of all, in fact it denounces, Madame Banon does not reflect an attempt to penetrate, yet admit to attempted rape, the case law requires a beginning of execution that was interrupted only by a circumstance beyond the control of its author.

Historically, the Court of Cassation considered that the attempted rape is for a man to " lay bare his virile member and the closer to the genitals of women, without necessarily attempt to introduce . " In a decision dated August 22, 2001, the Court of Cassation accepted prosecution for attempted rape in one case or the victim physically objected that the author's book on his person to an act of sodomy. And in a January 1996 decision, the court approved a prosecution for attempted rape because the defendant had put a condom and tried to enter the victim and that only a "temporary disability" had forced the author to abandon his project .

The facts alleged by Ms. Banon seem still quite remote from these decisions.

The question of proof is also fundamental, in many such cases, physical evidence of the allegations (DNA, videos, ...) are missing, especially if the facts are old. Then the word of one against the word of another. This drawback is also likely to oppose the proposed action by Ms. Banon.

Ms. Banon risk that if it files a complaint for rape against DSK?

In addition to the risk of the complaint no further action, the main risk would be pursued by itself M.Strauss-Kahn for false accusation.

Specifically, if Ms. Banon rape complaint filed against DSK in the knowledge that the facts denounced partially inaccurate, it could be prosecuted for false accusation (penalty: five years in prison and a fine of € 45,000 ... ). Prudence would require to limit the complaint to the facts of sexual assault, but it inevitably would lead the prescription of the action.

She looking for a fast payday to go away so he can resume his public life and not need to deal with her suit for years to come no doubt

Banon's mother, Socialist politician Anne Mansouret, said shortly after the housekeeper's accusations were splashed across front pages around the world that her daughter had been attacked by Strauss-Kahn in 2003 but that she had discouraged her at the time from filing charges against him.
He was never charged in connection with the alleged attack in France on Banon.
Mansouret, a member of parliament, said she cautioned Banon not to file a police report at the time for fear it would hurt her journalism career.
However, in light of the charges against Strauss-Kahn, 62, after the alleged incident at a Sofitel hotel in New York in May, Banon's attorney, Koubbi, said a few weeks ago that he and Banon were considering filing a complaint.
Koubbi said the cases were not connected.
"I don't see any reason why these two cases should be joined, because either the prosecutor has enough elements to condemn Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the United States -- and if he does, he should do it -- or he needs to bring two cases together to get a conviction," he said in June.
"In that case, we do not want to participate," he added.
Strauss-Kahn's attorney in France, Leon Lef Forster, did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations in May.
Mansouret described herself last week as "the woman who embarrasses the Socialist Party."
"I am ... a sort of collateral damage in the DSK affair. I knew for a long time that my political career was sealed with this bomb, but I didn't imagine that this bitter past could be revived so violently," she wrote July 1 on the Rue89 website, referring to the alleged attack in New York.
Mansouret recently pulled out of the Socialist Party presidential primaries. Strauss-Kahn had been a front-runner for the party nomination until the New York arrest, and suggestions that the case was foundering have revived talk of his chances in next year's presidential elections

the late unlamented (even by his own relatives) Marquis de Sade,....

But Ms Mansouret has said she is "revolted" by the gleeful reaction of many men in France to news the case in New York might fail.

Mr Koubbi told L'Express that he and his client had decided to press charges in mid-June, and that the timing of the decision was not linked to Mr Strauss-Kahn's US trial