07-01-2011, 07:43 AM
rest of story at link below.
The sexual assault case against ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn is reportedly close to collapse - and he could be freed without bail today.
The New York hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of raping her in his $3,000-a-night suite lied to investigators, law enforcement sources claim.
Despite a wealth of forensic evidence against the 62-year-old, prosecutors have dismissed a lot of what the maid said about the alleged encounter.
There are also issues involving the asylum application of the Guinean maid as well as her possible links to the criminal world.
She is said to have personal connections to drug dealers and money launderers.
'She's a con artist,' said one source, who added she could not be put on the stand because 'she'd be a flawed witness.
He also said Strauss-Kahn's legal team, who has hired private investigators to ferret out every detail of the alleged victim's past, had unearthed photographs of her drinking and partying, despite her professed Muslim faith.
Senior prosecutors met Strauss-Kahn's legal team on Thursday to discuss whether to dismiss the criminal charges.
According to officials the woman told investigators her application included a previous rape but it was not found on the application itself.
She also told them she had been subjected to genital mutilation, but her story was different to what she wrote on her application.
The 32-year-old was allegedly recorded talking to a jailed man a day after her alleged encounter with Strauss-Kahn, discussing what she could get out of pursuing the case.
The man in question had previously been arrested on possession of marijuana charges.
He is just one of the people who made multiple cash deposits, totalling $100,000, into the woman's bank account over the last two years, according to reports.
The woman also paid hundreds of dollars in phone charges every month to five different phone companies, although she insisted she had only one phone herself.
'If this is true, if there are serious problems now with the alleged victim's credibility, those problems aren't likely to get better the closer the case goes to trial so I wouldn't be surprised at all, again if this is true, if prosecutors were thinking of backing away,' said Andrew Cohen, CBS News Radio legal analyst.
'The sourcing of this story is important - the leaks evidently are coming from law enforcement sources and not defence attorneys - and that makes the story more likely to be true, or at least partially true. We'll know soon,' he added.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1QqwBwOLT