As it happened: Strauss-Kahn Bail hearing

Report

Reporters: Anna Jones and Stephanie Holmes 

                       

1. 1545:
   Welcome to the BBC's live coverage of the bail hearing of former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, due to begin shortly in New York. He is accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel room. The former IMF chief denies all the charges against him.
2. 1556:
   Dominique Strauss-Kahn has arrived at the courtroom, entering the room calmly.
3. 1611 The latest reports are that the judge is set to release Mr Strauss-Kahn from the strict terms of his bail conditions and will have his $6m (£3.7m) bail and bond money returned.
4. 1612 This easing of conditions follows reports that the case against Mr Strauss-Kahn was close to collapse - prosecutors reportedly had doubts about the credibility of his accuser.
5. 1611: Caroline Hepker BBC News
   Mr Strauss-Kahn's defence lawyers are going to be arguing to have his bail conditions relaxed. It is not expected to take very long for the judge to decide.
6. 1616:
   A reminder of the events so far - Mr Strauss-Kahn is accused of sexually assaulting a woman working as a maid in the Sofitel hotel in downtown Manhattan on 14 May. He is charged with seven counts including four felony charges - two of criminal sexual acts, one of attempted rape and one of sexual abuse - plus three misdemeanour offences, including unlawful imprisonment.
7. 1617:
   Forensic tests have found unambiguous evidence of a sexual encounter between Mr Strauss-Kahn and the woman, but his defence say anything that happened was consensual.
8. 1617:
   The case against Mr Strauss-Kahnhas marked a dramatic fall from grace for the 62-year-old former French finance minister, who has led the International Monetary Fund since 2007.
9. 1621:
   He resigned as IMF head after few days after his arrest, saying he wanted to "devote all my strength... to proving my innocence".
10. 1609:
    Reports that have cast doubt on the strength of the prosecution case have been leaked to the media, the New York Times reports. They suggest that law enforcement officials are having doubts about the credibility of the woman who accuses the former IMF head of assaulting her.
11. 1625:
    Officials said the maid - who was born in Guinea but sought asylum in the US some years ago - is believed to have lied about the alleged incident. There were also inconsistencies over claims she made in her application for asylum, they said.
12. 1630:
    Mr Strauss-Kahn's original arrest sent shockwaves through the French political world - he had been tipped as the next centre-left candidate for the presidency in 2012, but many now believe that whatever the outcome of this case, his political career is over.
13. 1631:
    However, the reports that the case against him had been severely weakened was yet another "thunderbolt" for France, the BBC's Christian Fraser reported earlier today.
14. 1635:
    Here is Mr Strauss-Kahn's full resignation statement, released by the IMF on 18 May.
15. 1637:
    AFP is reporting that the stringent bail conditions against Mr Strauss-Kahn have been lifted. We'll bring you more on this as soon as it emerges.
16. 1640:
    More from the courtroom where the bail hearing continues - the prosecution have said they are not ready to abandon the case against Mr Strauss-Kahn.
17. 1641:
    Though some in France argue that Mr Strauss-Kahn will recover, Marine Le Pen, president of France's National Front party, writing in Le Figaro, thinks otherwise.
18. 1641:
    Mr Strauss-Kahn is now leaving the courtroom in New York.
19. 1642:
    His wife, American-French journalist Anne Sinclair, is alongside him - she has stood by him throughout his arrest and detention.
20. 1645:
    Dominique Strauss-Kahn is no longer under house arrest and his bail money has been returned to him.
21.  

    1642: Via Twitter Karime Lebhour UN reporter for Radio France Internationale
    says the public prosecutor said the dossier against Mr Strauss-Kahn had been weakened, but not cleared.
22. 1649:
    Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, has said he "believed from the beginning that this case was not what it appeared to be".
23. 1651:
    "We are absolutely convinced that while today is the first giant step in the right direction, the next step will need to be a complete dismissal of all the charges," said Mr Brafman.
24. 1651:
    The lawyer for the woman who accused Mr Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault is now addressing journalists outside the courtoom.
25. 1654:
    The accuser's lawyer is giving graphic details of the injuries he says she received in the alleged incident.
26. 1656:
    The lawyer says the medical evidence supports the woman's case.
27. 1648:
    The US government will retain Mr Strauss-Kahn's travel documents, Reuters report.
28. 1659:
    Justice Michael Obus told the court: "I understand that the circumstances of this case have changed substantially and I agree the risk that he would not be here has receded quite a bit. I release Mr Strauss-Kahn at his own recognisance."
29. 1701:
    The maid's lawyer is Kenneth Thompson. He says his client has "described that sexual assault many times and has never once changed a single thing about that account".
30. 1703:
    Mr Thompson says Mr Strauss-Kahn's only defence is that the encounter was consensual. "That is a lie," he says.
31. 1705:
    "When the victim walked into that suite she did so for one reason - to clean the suite," says Mr Thompson.
32. 1711:
    We've had to take down our live video coverage from outside the courtroom because of the explicit nature of the lawyer's comments. We'll continue to bring you all the details from the aftermath of this bail hearing.
33. 1714:
    Prosecuting lawyer Kenneth Thompson has said the woman was afraid of losing her job at the hotel. "The victim here may have made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," he said.
34. 1718:
    France's Socialist party has said Mr Strauss-Kahn's release from bail is "a moment of intense relief", the Agence France Presse reports. Mr Strauss-Kahn is a key figure in the party and had been considered a potential future candidate for next year's presidential elections.
35. 1720:
    Mr Strauss-Kahn's exit from the courtroom today was markedly different from the controversial "perp walk" he went through after his arrest, when he was paraded in handcuffs, to the anger of his supporters.
36. 1721:
    More from Mr Thompson. He says client told him: "I will go to my grave knowing what this man did to me. I have nothing left now. I am going to come out and tell the world what Dominique Strauss-Kahn did to me."
37. 1726:
    Mr Thompson has said his client may speak to reporters - as is usual with sexual assault cases, her identity has not been publicly disclosed so far. We only know she is 32, originally from Guinea and had worked as a cleaning maid at the Sofitel hotel.
38. 1731:
    The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says that many in France will have been repulsed by the allegations the accuser's lawyer made outside the courtroom. But equally, many people were furious at the way Mr Strauss-Kahn was treated after his arrest, seeing it as an humiliation of France, and would perhaps still consider throwing their support behind him if he did pursue a political career.
39. 1735:
    Even if he did not run for the presidency himself, says our correspondent, Mr Strauss-Kahn could act as a king-maker, giving crucial backing to another Socialist candidate.
40. 1738:
    The BBC's Christian Fraser says this case has had a huge impact on the reporting of sexual abuse allegations in France, which one official said had doubled since the arrest.
41. 1738:
    In France the Socialist Party reacted with joy to the news from the New York Times suggesting that the case against Mr Strauss-Kahn may be near collapse. In a brief statement, quoted by Liberation, Socialist leader Martine Aubry said she hoped "the nightmare will end soon".
42. 1741:
    The New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr is now speaking to reporters. He says the case was investigated "rigorously" and that the investigations will continue "until we have uncovered all relevant facts".
43. 1743:
    Mr Vance stressed again that the charges against Mr Strauss-Kahn have not been dismissed.
44. 1746:
    He said the court had given full support to the alleged victim, and done "everything in our power to maintain her privacy and keep her safe - and we will continue to do so".
45. 1748:
    DA Cyrus Vance Jr responds to criticism of the actions of his office from the maid's lawyer: "Our duty is to do what is right in any case, without fear or favour. The disclosures we made reflect that principle. Our office's commitment is to the truth and to the facts."
46. 1750:
    The BBC's Laura Trevelyan was in the courtroom in Manhattan for the bail hearing. She says nothing was said in court about what the credibility issues surrounding the accuser are.
47. 1753:
    Details are emerging from the letter which prosecutors sent to Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers detailing their concerns about their client's testimony. They say she has admitted to lying in her account of what she did after the alleged incident.
48. 1755:
    She at first said she had fled the room and reported the alleged attack. But the letter says she has "since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in Suite 2806, she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor", Reuters reports.
49. 1759:
    A quick summary of a dramatic few hours - former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has had his strict bail conditions eased and bail money returned after doubts arose about the credibility of his accuser. New York's District Attorney says the woman has admitted lying in parts of her testimony. Standing outside the courtroom, her lawyer has given a graphic description of what the alleged victim says happened in the Manhattan Sofitel hotel on 14 May.
50. 1806:
    Earlier today we looked at the media frenzy which erupted in France as news of the latest turn of events in the case emerged. "Could the French presidential election be shaken up again?" asked Le Figaro.
51. 1818:
    That brings an end to our live coverage of Dominque Strauss-Kahn's bail hearing in New York. The sexual assault charges against him remain, but he has been released "on his own recognisance" and will appear in court again on 18 July. You can continue to follow this story and others on the BBC News website.

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