IMF chief on sex charge is under suicide watch
The maid's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, said he had no doubts his client, a single mother, was telling the truth about the alleged encounter on Saturday.
"She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice, and she's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful," Shapiro said. "What (Strauss-Kahn) might be able to get away with in some countries, he can't here in this country."
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Hide AdStrauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said that defence lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."
But Shapiro dismissed suggestions that the woman had made up the charges or tried to cover up a consensual encounter.
"This is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this young woman," Shapiro said. He added that the woman didn't know who was staying in the 28th-floor suite she went to clean on Saturday afternoon, before she said she was attacked.
Strauss-Kahn was one of the most high-profile politicians in France and a potential candidate for president in next year's elections before the alleged incident.