Strauss-Kahn back in Paris after New York sex scandal

FE Team | Published: September 05, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

PARIS, Sept 4 (agencies): Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned to Paris Sunday for the first time since a New York hotel maid accused him of attempted rape in a sensational sex scandal that scuppered his hopes for the French presidency. The former IMF chief and his journalist wife Anne Sinclair arrived at dawn at Charles de Gaulle airport on an Air France flight and were whisked off in a black Peugeot to their apartment in the chic Place des Vosges. They smiled and waved but made no statement to the horde of journalists awaiting their arrival at the airport and again declined to comment when mobbed by media as they got to their home in the Marais area in the heart of Paris. Strauss-Kahn, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, boarded the flight at New York's JFK International airport late Saturday, less than two weeks after sexual assault charges against him were dropped. The 62-year-old, once seen as a possible French presidential contender, denied the allegations. Mr Strauss-Kahn, who resigned in the days after his arrest, had his passport returned last month. Hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, who accused Mr Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in his hotel room, is pressing her claims in a civil lawsuit. Mr Strauss-Kahn and his wife smiled and waved as they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, but made no comment to waiting journalists and passed rapidly through the terminal to a waiting car. They had boarded the same scheduled Saturday night Air France flight for Paris that he was about to take when he was arrested on 14 May, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says. The couple and their daughter were mobbed by photographers as they left their rented home in Manhattan for JFK airport on Saturday afternoon. The case against Mr Strauss-Kahn was dropped late last month at the request of prosecutors who had concerns about Ms Diallo's credibility.