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This article was first published 13 years ago

Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Last updated on: July 4, 2011 15:51 IST

Image: Members of the New York Hotel Workers Union stand outside New York Supreme Court in support of the victim of the alleged victim of former of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York, June 6, 2011.
Photographs: Reuters

The Guinean maid, who accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, may face perjury charges and she can also be deported from the United States following claims that she lied under oath, a news report said.

The 32-year-old hotel maid is under intense scrutiny after New York prosecutors told a court on Friday that they had found holes in her story which may seriously damage her credibility as a witness, Daily Telegraph online reported.

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Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Image: Strauss-Kahn leaves the New York Police Department Special Victims Unit headquarters in Harlem.
Photographs: Reuters

Moreover, local media reports also alleged that the maid at Sofitel Hotel was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, and that Strauss-Kahn may have misunderstood the situation on May 14.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, was accused of forcing the maid at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan to perform oral sex. He was bundled out of a Paris-bound flight and taken into custody. He claims their sexual encounter was consensual.

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Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Image: New York City union hotel workers gather to protest against former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Photographs: Reuters

But the case against him is hanging by a thread with reports claiming that soon after the incident, she's recorded telling a drug dealer in Arizona: "Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing."

But what is certain is that the maid told detectives and prosecutors that afterwards "she fled to an area of the main hallway" and "waited there until she observed the defendant leave suite 2806".

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Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Image: Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Photographs: Reuters

A letter filed to court by Cyrus Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, said: "The complainant testified to this version of events when questioned in the Grand Jury about her actions."

However, she "has since admitted that this account was false" and that she went on to clean another room, and returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's suite, before reporting the incident to her supervisor, the newspaper said.

. . .

Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Image: People pass by the Sofitel hotel after Strauss-Kahn was arrested and charged with sexual assault.
Photographs: Reuters

Vance's letter also stated that the maid had admitted in interviews that information she gave on her 2004 application for asylum in the US -- including that she had been gang raped -- "was false".

She "certified under penalty of perjury" that the application was true.

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Maid in Strauss-Kahn case lied under oath?

Image: Stories regarding the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, on the front pages of newspapers.
Photographs: Reuters

Under New York state law, testifying falsely in a way that is material to the case being considered is perjury in the first degree, a class D felony punishable with up to seven years in prison.

Arrivals to the United States may also be deported if convicted of "fraudulently obtaining immigration benefits" through false statements.

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