(Reuters) - T
he sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was close to collapse on Friday, sources close to the case said, in a dramatic turnabout that could upend French politics again.A source familiar with the probe told Reuters that prosecutors now had doubts about the maid's credibility as a witness.
Strauss-Kahn's supporters in the French Socialist party voiced delight at the apparent reversal and some said they hoped he might re-enter the 2012 presidential race.
But political analysts said his reputation had been too tarnished for him to be a presidential contender, although he could play an influential political role if cleared.
"Even if what he did was not criminal, all this is going to take time," said Christophe Barbier, a political commentator and editor of L'Express weekly.
"There is everything we have learned about him, the damage to his reputation. All this makes the idea he could be a candidate very hypothetical, it's science fiction."
From the start, the case hinged on the purported victim, a 32-year-old Guinean immigrant who cleaned the $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan where Strauss-Kahn was staying.
The New York Times quoted a source close to the investigation as saying the housekeeper had lied repeatedly and prosecutors no longer believed her account of the circumstances of the sexual encounter or of her own background.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors met with Strauss-Kahn's lawyers on Thursday and the parties were discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges.
It said Strauss-Kahn could be released on his own recognizance and freed from house arrest.
Strauss-Kahn was due back to court in New York on Friday to seek changes to his bail conditions, defense attorney Benjamin Brafman said.
"This is amazing news for Dominique, for (his wife and former television journalist) Anne Sinclair, for his family. I think they must have the impression this morning that they are waking up from a terrible nightmare," Socialist lawmaker Jean-Marie Le Guen, who is close to Strauss-Kahn, told French television on Friday morning.
"All those who believed in Dominque's innocence, and in the fact that the elements as they were reported were incompatible with his personality, will feel vindicated," he said.
Some analysts said that if fully cleared, Strauss-Kahn could lend economic credibility as an adviser to a Socialist candidate and might eventually emerge as a contender to be prime minister or finance minister.
The New York Times quoted two well-placed law enforcement officials as saying prosecutors had found issues with the asylum application of the accuser and possible links to criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.
They had also discovered that the woman had made a phone call to an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him, the paper said.
The conversation was recorded. The man was among a number of individuals who had made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman's bank account over the last two years, the New York Times said
After a few nights in New York's notorious Rikers Island jail, Strauss-Kahn was allowed to post $1 million cash bail and a $5 million bond. He is now under house arrest in Manhattan, equipped with an electronic monitoring device and under the 24-hour watch of armed guards.
Adapted from Reuters
