60 per cent in France believe Strauss-Kahn is victim of plot

Accused: Dominique Strauss-Kahn in court

Strauss-Kahn

Strauss-Kahn faces HIV test as 60 per cent in France believe he is victim of plot

Rashid Razaq and Peter Allen in Paris
18 May 2011

A majority of French people believe presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused of sexually assaulting a chambermaid, is the victim of a plot.

Almost 60 per cent feel the International Monetary Fund chief is innocent and has been framed in a conspiracy.
Straus-Kahn, 62, is being held in Riker Island prison in New York. He denies a string of charges including criminal sex acts, attempted rape and illegal imprisonment.
Former French culture minister Jack Lang described the treatment of Strauss-Kahn as a "lynching" that had "provoked horror and aroused disgust". Liberation, a Left-wing daily newspaper, has published details of off-the-record comments made by Strauss-Kahn as recently as April 28, in which he said he feared a plot.
Discussing his plans to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy as Socialist candidate for the presidency next year, he said he imagined "a woman who had been raped in a car park and who was offered between 500,000 and a million euros to make up such a story".
It emerged today that Strauss-Kahn may have to undergo an HIV test following claims his alleged victim could be a carrier. The hotel chambermaid who is accusing the IMF chief of rape is reported to have been under the care of a charity helping people with HIV and Aids.
It has emerged the 32-year-old and her 15-year-old daughter were being housed in a Bronx apartment block by Harlem Community Aids United. The charity has not revealed the medical status of the maid, who is a migrant from Guinea, west Africa, but did confirm it only rents apartments for adults with either HIV or Aids.
The woman has accused Strauss-Kahn of forcing her to perform oral sex on him twice and then trying to rape her as she cleaned his Sofitel hotel room in Times Square on Saturday. He denies all charges.
Investigators are looking at why hotel staff failed to alert police until almost three hours later, allowing Strauss-Kahn time to leave. The IMF chief was arrested as he boarded an Air France plane. The maid's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, a close family friend, said she was a widow. Strauss-Kahn remains under suicide watch at the prison and is due back in court on Friday.
It comes as a European journalist, named only as Martina, alleged that Strauss-Kahn offered her an exclusive interview in exchange for sex.
She said: "He was incredibly insistent ... He made it almost explicit that I had to sleep with him for the interview."
Economist Piroska Nagy, who worked at the IMF, warned the organisation about Strauss-Kahn's behaviour towards women in a letter in 2008 after they had an affair.
French author Tristane Banon, 31, has accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her a decade ago and is considering reporting him to the police in Paris.