Dominique Strauss-Kahn facing second sex charge

Dominique Strauss-Kahns chances of entering the French presidential race appeared to be over after a novelist who described him as a rutting chimpanzee said she would make a criminal complaint of attempted rape. Tristane Banon, a 32-year-old journalist and writer, will file for charges on Tuesday over an alleged attack in a Paris apartment in 2003 during which she claims Mr Strauss-Khan tried to unhook her bra and open her jeans. Her lawyer, David Koubbi said the complaint would reach the Paris prosecutors office by Wednesday. The announcement comes as the sexual assault case brought by an American hotel chambermaid against the former head of the International Monetary Fund is close to collapse. Mr Strauss-Kahn was freed from his strict bail terms by a New York court on Friday amid doubts over the alleged victims credibility. That had raised hopes among his supporters that the 62-year-old would make a triumphant return to French politics if acquitted in the US, perhaps even running for president next year for the opposition Socialists.

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