Prosecutors have just announced that they’ll stop investigating French writer Tristane Banon’s allegations that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003. The news comes just as Banon releases a “novelization” of her life in which she describes an assault by an unnamed “baboon” whose description matches DSK.
The AP just reported that the investigation is being dropped — more details are presumably forthcoming. Meanwhile, Banon’s new book The Hypocrites’ Ball tells her side of the story. In it, she writes,
It was nine o’clock that Saturday morning and they were talking about the baboon on the television. He is a superhero, a Messiah, saviour … capable of everything. He would revive the country, lower taxes, understand the weakest and bring happiness and calm to each French household.
They showed pictures of him; in action in the four corners of the world. Superman. When I saw him his stare made me freeze, the television screen could not protect me, his smile was only for me, it forced its way into my stomach and the image only disappeared when I threw up my lunch. Suddenly his message on my telephone came back to me: “So, I scared you?”. That was eight years ago.
The years have passed, but nothing has completely effaced the memory.
Banon has said she’ll sue Strauss-Kahn if criminal charges against him are dropped, so she may yet have her day in court. But for now, DSK goes free.
Paris Prosecutor Drops Probe Into Attemped Rape Claim Against Dominique Strauss-Kahn [AP]
DSK Rape Accuser Tristane Banon Writes Book About Assault By ‘Baboon’ [Guardian]