Kenneth Thompson, lawyer for the alleged victim in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, Friday insisted that the 32-year-old immigrant hotel maid had been sexually assaulted by the former IMF chief - even if there were some questions about her life's story, DPA reported.
Thompson protested the decision by a New York judge to release the former head of the International Monetary Fund on his own recognizance and lift heavy bail restrictions that confined him to a New York home under strict guard. Prosecutors admitted they had question about the alleged victim's story and details of her US asylum application.
Thompson charged that New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance was "afraid to try this case" and hinted there was a conflict of interest in the marriage relationship of one of the lead prosecutors with one of Strauss-Kahn's lawyers.
The attorney said there was clear physical evidence that his client had been assaulted in the alleged attack in mid May, in a luxury Sofitel hotel room that she had entered to clean. The evidence was in the police photos of her bruised vagina, which Strauss-Kahn allegedly grabbed after seizing her breasts.
Thompson conceded his client had lied in her asylum application that gained her admission to the United States, in order to spare her daughter from forced female genital mutilation she herself had suffered. "It may be the victim made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," Thompson said.