Tristane Banon: Does she overthrow Strauss-Kahn?

Tristan Banon

Sometimes the wind turns very fast. Just a few days ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn celebrated his regained freedom with a $ 700 menu. The former head of the International Monetary Fund had been under house arrest in New York for weeks because he was suspected of having forced a hotel employee to have sex. On July 1, the prosecutor suspended his house arrest for not believing the witness to be credible. But Strauss-Kahn's triumph lasted only briefly: Four days later, the French author Tristane Banon also accused the powerful man. He tried to rape her nine years ago. Now, just before the end of the statute of limitations of ten years, she wants to take him to court.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was still considered a possible presidential candidate at the weekend, is now coming under pressure in his own homeland. If Banon comes through with their complaint, the political career of the socialist is likely to be over.

But what exactly happened eight years ago? And why is Banon going to court only now?



The victim

Tristane Banon is 32, pretty, confident and successful. She studied law and was at a renowned journalism school in Paris. She has written for the well-known French newspapers "Paris Match" and "Le Figaro" and works today as a freelance journalist and author. When she first met Strauss-Kahn, she was only 22 and at the beginning of her career. In February 2003, she interviewed the party leader of the Socialists in the French parliament. Shortly thereafter, he had again with a text message with her and asked her for another meeting because he was dissatisfied with the interview. He sent Banon the address of an apartment, where they met again. There, he quickly became intrusive, as Banon already described in a 2007 TV interview without mentioning the name of her attacker. "He was like a brindle chimpanzee. First he wanted to hold my hand. (...) Then he grabbed my arm? and then on and on. It ended very badly, very, very brutally. We were wrestling on the ground. "The young woman managed to escape and in a text message Strauss-Kahn asked her:" Did I scare you? "



The mother

After escaping from the apartment, Banon immediately called her mother, the socialist politician Anne Mansouret. "I got a panic call, she cried and told me what happened, he was - so she told me then - attacked her," Mansouret is quoted on Tagesschau.de. She picked up her daughter, who was still sitting distraught in her locked car. But despite her desperate condition, Anne Mansouret advises Tristane to denounce Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She did not want trouble with the powerful party comrade. In addition, there were close ties to his family: Tristane was the godchild of Strauss-Kahn's second wife and friends with his daughter Camille. "It would have been too sensitive for family reasons," said Tristanes mother to the newspaper "Paris Normandie". Today, Mansouret regrets her decision. "I have a heavy responsibility and I am sorry that I persuaded my daughter not to file a complaint." When Mansouret Strauss-Kahn addressed the incident years ago, did he apologize? he had blown a fuse. But that's no longer enough for mother and daughter today.



The lawyer

David Koubbi is Tristan Banon's lawyer. He will represent you in the case if it comes to the prosecution. Koubbi does not believe that Banon would have had a chance if she had already taken Strauss-Kahn to court. "It is well known that in such cases, the word of the woman counts nothing against that of a man, and there is this statistic, according to which only one out of every ten women dares to report a rape." And if the man is still powerful, it looks even worse for the women. But in the face of the New York trial, he advised Banon to seize the opportunity to bring her alleged torturer to justice. "We must welcome the courage of Tristane Banon!"

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