Paris: A French television channel on Friday
broadcast for the first time security camera images from the
New York hotel where Dominique Strauss-Kahn stayed on the day
he was accused of sexual assault.
BFMTV broadcast images showing the former International
Monetary Fund chief in May paying his bill, leaving and
getting into a taxi after he was alleged to have sexually
assaulted chamber maid Nafissatou Diallo.
New York prosecutors dropped the case against
Strauss-Kahn, who had been tipped to win next year's French
presidential election, after Diallo was deemed an unreliable
witness.
Strauss-Kahn admits that a sexual liaison took place but
insists it was consensual.
The images show that Strauss-Kahn was not in a hurry when
he left the Sofitel hotel at 12:27 pm local time on the day of
his arrest, May 14.
Other images show Diallo seated in a corridor and being
looked after by Sofitel employees after she said Strauss-Kahn
attacked her in his suite.
A hotel employee is shown and heard calling police to
inform them of the alleged attack.
Two other hotel employees can be seen briefly celebrating
in other images. The hotel has said the celebration was
unconnected with the alleged attack.
Hotel group Accor, which owns the Sofitel, criticised the
broadcasting of the footage, saying it "exposes staff members
to media curiosity to no useful purpose."
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 09, 2011, 09:29