Dominique Srauss-Kahn, former head of that much-loved and oh so generous organisation the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been freed without bail. Strauss-Khan was accused back in May this year of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York – he was taken into custody with bail and bond set at $6 million dollars. Which, of course, was paid almost instantly.Since then, he’s been under house arrest – which when your house happens to be a 6,804 square foot three story residence worth over $6 million, really doesn’t seem like much of a punishment.
A few months down the line and guess what? It looks like even this punishment has been lifted from poor Dom and the charges against him (including two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape, one of sexual abuse and one of unlawful imprisonment among others) are going to go away. Apparently, facts have come to light that ‘undermine the credibility’ of the Guinean-born maid who is accusing him – doubt is being cast on everything from her asylum application to claims that she had been previously raped in her native country and the fact that she did not report the incident immediately after it happened. Despite the fact that there is definite proof that there was a ‘sexual encounter’ between the two (in fact, it looked like Strauss-Khan’s only defence was going to be ‘it was consensual, honest guv!’), it looks like this new ‘evidence’ will lead to all charges being dropped.
It looks at the moment like a massive character assassination is taking place against a woman who has probably been the victim of abuse at the hands of one of the world’s most powerful men. By casting doubt on her previous attack, she’s made to look like ‘the boy who cried wolf’ and suggesting that the fact she didn’t report what happened instantly undermines her credibility totally ignores the fact that she might have been terrified/traumatised after the incident. But given the way the media, courts and authorities usually treat violence against women and rape in particular, can we really be surprised that the press is focusing more on ‘flaws’ in the victim than on the actions of the man accused?
At the end of the day, it looks as though a working-class black woman is going to have character dragged through the mud and her case thrown out while a very wealthy white man is going to walk away almost unscathed. Some things never change, do they?