After 46 days in detention and under house arrest, the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn enjoyed his first night of freedom in style last night: dining on pasta with truffles, cheesecake and red wine at an Italian restaurant in New York.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest yesterday and his restrictive bail conditions were lifted after prosecutors told a court hearing the maid who has accused him of sexual assault on a hotel room had lied to a grand jury.
Just a few hours later the 62-year-old emerged from his exclusive townhouse – where celebratory balloons had been delivered earlier in the day - with a large grin on his face as he set out to savour his freedom.
Casually dressed with a dark suit but wearing no tie, Mr Strauss-Kahn looked relaxed as he walked to a car with his wife, the French journalist Anne Sinclair, another couple and several security guards.
The group was taken to Scalinatella, an Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a local eaterie which is occasionally visited by Madonna.
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As the bodyguards hovered nearby with their earpieces, the quartet drank Brunello di Montalcino red wine and enjoyed a sumptuous $600 (£374) meal.
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s meal included an hors d’oeuvre of prosciutto and melon, followed by a pasta course of pappardelle with truffles, which are offered on the menu at $100 (£63) a plate. For dessert, the former head of the IMF had cheese cake and an espresso.
During their dinner, Mr Strauss-Kahn and Ms Sinclair were recognised and greeted by a couple who dined at a table nearby, who greeted the former IMF chief and his spouse warmly.
“I saw him in the news,” said Silvia Grottola, who was also dining in the restaurant. “He looks like he is in a very good mood, having a very good dinner.”
“The wife is having a good time,” she continued. “The smile on her face was enough for me.”
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Other couples who dined at Scalinatella did not recognise Mr Strauss-Kahn and were baffled by the presence of so many reporters outside.
The four diners left through the kitchen and out the back door, where Mr Strauss-Kahn and Ms Sinclair smiled for the waiting photographers.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, whose $1 million bail and $5 million bond will now be returned, is now free to travel throughout the United States but not to leave the country. His passport has not been returned, pending a possible trial.
Leading figures in the Socialist Party in France indicated yesterday that they would consider extending the July 13 deadline for Mr Strauss-Kahn to declare his candidacy in the country’s presidential elections.
Lawyers acting for Mr Strauss-Kahn, who had been among the favourites to win the election, predicted that the case against their client would be dismissed.
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During a hearing that lasted less than ten minutes, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, an assistant district attorney, said that the prosecutors’ office had contacted the defendant’s lawyers on Thursday to inform them that they had uncovered a series of inconsistencies in the testimony that they had presented to a grand jury. “The strength of the case has been affected by substantial credibility issues regarding the complainant,” she said. “We are not moving to dismiss the case at this time, [however].”
The apparent collapse of the case began when prosecutors drafted a letter to Mr Strauss-Kahn’s defence team explaining that the alleged victim had admitted providing false accusations of brutality and sexual assault in an asylum application. “She stated that she fabricated the statement,” it read.
Prosecutors also said that the chambermaid’s account of the aftermath of the alleged assault in a suite of the Sofitel hotel had changed.
She initially claimed that she fled the scene and waited until she saw Mr Strauss-Kahn leave suite 2806 before reporting the attack to her supervisor. It subsequently transpired that she cleaned another suite and then returned to the room vacated by the French economist to continue cleaning before raising the alarm.
They also discovered that the alleged victim, a 32-year-old woman from Guinea, had links to drug dealing and money laundering.
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They said she had given false testimony about what happened in the minutes after the alleged attack and suggested that there had been inconsistencies in previous allegations of rape and genital mutilation in an asylum application she filed after moving to the United States in 2002.
The day after the alleged attack, the victim also telephoned an African immigrant locked up in an Arizona jail on charges of possessing almost 200kg of marijuana, law enforcement sources have said. She told the man, said by her friends to be her ex-husband: “Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing.”
The man was also one of the people who investigators said had made multiple cash deposits totalling over £60,000 into the victim’s bank account over the last two years.
The victim belongs to the Fulla ethnic group, which is widespread in West Africa, and the phone conversation was conducted in “a unique dialect of Fulani”. The call was recorded and a full translation only became available on Wednesday, The New York Times said.
The prosecution maintains that forensic science evidence proves that a sexual encounter took place on May 14 after which the maid left the room abruptly.
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Kenneth Thompson, a lawyer acting on the victim’s behalf, accused the prosecutors of betraying her despite a wealth of graphic evidence corroborating the alleged attack.
“We believe the DA is laying the foundations to dismiss this case. The DA has an obligation to stand by this rape victim, to stand up for all women who have been raped and sexually assaulted,” he said. “She has made some mistakes but that doesn’t mean she is not a rape victim.”
In an extraordinary half-hour press conference in front of the courthouse, he described in detail the violence of the alleged attack and the injuries sustained to the victim’s crotch and shoulder.
The maid had been brave enough to stand up to a powerful man who would now be free to attack other women. He said she had told him: “I will go to my grave knowing the truth, knowing what this man did to me.”
The case is due to resume on July 18, but the judge said he was confident that Mr Strauss-Kahn would attend the next hearing voluntarily after a prohibitive set of bail conditions were lifted. He was subject to extensive and expensive conditions, including an ankle monitor, surveillance cameras and armed guards.
“The risk that you will not be here appears to have receded quite a bit,” said Justice Michael Obus, but he cautioned the French politician that he may still have to answer the charges that were laid against him.
“Of course, the case is not over as you just heard. In the meantime, there will be no rush to judgment. The People will, I have no doubt, continue to investigate.”