Strauss-Kahn leaves NYC house, destination unknown
Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn left the townhouse he was renting and stepped into a vehicle with his wife on Saturday afternoon, a day after a judge lifted his house arrest on attempted rape charges.
Smiling and looking relaxed, Strauss-Kahn emerged with his wife, French journalist Anne Sinclair, just after 2pm (1800 GMT) from the house in lower Manhattan's Tribeca neighbourhood.
They glanced at the crowd of reporters across the street, then climbed into the back seat of a black Mercedes sedan. The car then sped off down the cobblestoned street followed by a second black sedan. The couple carried no luggage, and it was unclear whether they were leaving New York. Strauss-Kahn owns a home in Washington, DC, where the IMF is headquartered.
On Friday, prosecutors told a judge they had discovered serious problems with the credibility of the Sofitel hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in May.
The judge subsequently lifted his house arrest, allowing him to travel anywhere in the United States but not abroad. In a dramatic turn of events, the Manhattan district attorney's office revealed that the 32-year-old hotel maid had committed a host of minor frauds to better her life in the US since arriving in the country from Guinea seven years ago, including lying on immigration paperwork, cheating on her taxes, and misstating her income so she could live in an apartment reserved for the poor.
Days after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, the maid made a telephone call to a significant other who was incarcerated in Arizona, and that also raised suspicions, said a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorised to speak publicly about the case.
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