Strauss-Kahn lawyer demands US suit dismissal

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer asked a US judge yesterday to dismiss a civil suit brought by a New York hotel maid, saying the disgraced French politician had diplomatic immunity when he allegedly assaulted her.

The IMF managing director’s immunity is limited to official acts

The suit “must be dismissed,” Amit Mehta said in New York state court at the start of a hearing called to decide whether Strauss-Kahn enjoyed immunity.

Mehta said Mr Strauss-Kahn, who was head of the International Monetary Fund when the scandal erupted on May 14 last year, has “the same kind of diplomatic immunity that other high ranking officials and diplomats enjoy.”

The “law compels the dismissal of this complaint,” he said.

Attorneys for the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, say that status did not apply under the circumstances, arguing that Strauss-Kahn was not on official duty while in New York that weekend.

The IMF “managing director’s immunity is limited to official acts,” Douglas Wigdor said.

Mr Wigdor said Mr Strauss-Kahn had “brutally sexually assaulted Ms Diallo” and now sought to “deny Ms Diallo’s right to a trial in this case and delay these proceedings.”

Judge Douglas McKeon repeatedly challenged Mehta in a highly technical debate on international treaty law, but was not expected to rule immediately.

The hearing was the first in the civil action brought by the hotel maid whose accusations triggered the spectacular downfall of one of the world’s most powerful politicians last year.

Neither Mr Strauss-Kahn, who is simultaneously facing criminal pimping charges in France, nor Ms Diallo, were present in the wood-panelled Bronx courtroom. Several dozen journalists, many of them from France, attended. According to Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, only a consensual sexual encounter took place at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan.

US prosecutors threw out criminal charges, saying the maid’s testimony would not stand up in a jury trial. However, Ms Diallo is pursuing the French statesman for unspecified financial damages.

“She wants recognition of her status as a victim and the reality of the attack she suffered,” her French lawyer Thibault de Montbrial told French television channel LCI earlier.

He said Ms Diallo was still employed by the Sofitel hotel and expected to go back to work there at some point, adding that she still required treatment on her shoulder, “which was injured during the assault.”

Unless Mr Strauss-Kahn settles, yesterday’s arguments could prove to be only the first salvo of a drawn-out and bitter court battle.

Allegations in the civil suit are much the same as the criminal charges initially lodged against Mr Strauss-Kahn: that Ms Diallo went to clean his luxury hotel suite and was subjected to a brutal sexual assault.