July 10, 2013 -- Updated 1238 GMT (2038 HKT)
In an exclusive interview, former chief of the IMF lashes out at his
treatment by police -- particularly his forced participation in "the
perp walk." FULL STORY
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EUROPEAN BANKING IS SICK
July 10, 2013 -- Updated 1106 GMT (1906 HKT)
Strauss-Kahn: 'I was angry'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- "I think it's a terrible thing, frankly," the former IMF chief tells CNN
- "Perp walks" are standard fare in the United States
- They are not allowed in France
Editor's note: Watch
more of this exclusive interview on Quest Means Business, 1800 GMT
Monday to Friday on CNN International. Follow Richard Quest on Twitter.
Paris (CNN) -- The former chief of the International
Monetary Fund who resigned after being charged two years ago with
sexually assaulting a maid in a New York city hotel lashed out Tuesday
at his treatment by police -- particularly his forced participation in
"the perp walk."
"I think it's a terrible
thing, frankly," Dominique Strauss-Kahn told CNN's Richard Quest in his
first English- language television interview since he resigned as head
of the IMF in 2011. "The problem is, it's a moment where in all
European, American society you're supposed to be innocent, you're
supposed to be innocent until you're convicted."
The economist had been
widely expected to become France's Socialist presidential candidate --
until his professional career imploded with his May 2011 arrest.
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A New York hotel
housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, told police that Strauss-Kahn emerged
naked from a room in his luxury hotel suite as she was cleaning it and
tried to force himself on her, dragging her into the bathroom and trying
to remove her underwear.
Strauss-Kahn's
arraignment was televised and clips played on U.S. and international
networks. "Perp walks," in which defendants -- accompanied by police --
walk in front of photographers handcuffed, are standard fare in America.
Underscoring the cultural
differences between France and the United States, many French recoiled
from images of Strauss-Kahn being paraded before the news media in
handcuffs and in court -- photographs that would be prohibited under
French law to protect the presumption of innocence.
"The perp walk takes
place at the moment where you (are) supposed to be innocent," said
Strauss-Kahn, who calls himself DSK. "You're just shown to everybody as
if you were a criminal, at a moment where nobody knows if it's true or
not -- maybe you're a criminal, maybe you're not. That's going to be
proved later on, and so it is just unfair to put people in that way in
front of the rest of the world when you just don't know what they have
done."
Strauss-Kahn said he was
angry at his treatment because he did not understand why he had been
placed in custody. "I was just understanding that something was going on
that I didn't control," he said.
Despite his insistence that the encounter was consensual, Strauss-Kahn stepped down from his $500,000 job at the IMF.
Forensic evidence showed
that a sexual encounter had occurred and a grand jury indicted him on
seven counts, including sexual abuse and attempted rape, but prosecutors
dropped the charges after concluding Diallo had lied about some details of the alleged attack.
Diallo then sued Strauss-Kahn in civil court. The two sides settled late last year, though the details have not been disclosed.
Last October, a French prosecutor dropped an investigation connecting
Strauss-Kahn to a possible gang rape in Washington. The Belgian woman
whose testimony was the basis for the inquiry withdrew a previous
statement and said she would not press charges, leaving the
investigation with no grounds to continue, officials said.
Strauss-Kahn also faced
allegations of attempted rape in 2003 against a French writer, Tristane
Banon. But prosecutors said the statute of limitations had passed and
the case could not be pursued.
The former IMF chief denied the allegations and has since filed a countersuit in France, alleging slander.
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