French Writer Drops Plan to Sue Strauss-Kahn

A French writer whose claim that Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 was dropped by prosecutors says she won’t file a civil suit against the former IMF head and one-time French presidential hopeful.

Tristane Banon says she’s “always said that I’d file a civil suit only if my status as a victim was not recognized.”

French prosecutors last week dropped their criminal probe into Banon’s attempted rape claim, but said that Strauss-Kahn admitted during questioning to actions that qualify for the lesser charge of sexual assault.

Speaking Wednesday on French TV channel Canal+, Banon said the prosecutor had recognized her as a victim of sexual assault, but the case couldn’t be pursued because the three-year statute of limitations on sexual assault had expired.