Sex Charges Against Strauss-Kahn Dropped

A judge on Tuesday granted New York prosecutors' request to dismiss the criminal sex assault charges against former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The order, however, will not take effect until an appeals court rules on his accuser's request for a special prosecutor in the case. The request was dismissed by Judge Michael Obus earlier Tuesday and the appeal was expected to be decided later in the day, according to FOX News Channel.

Obus announced his decision to drop the seven-count indictment in front of a packed courtroom a day after the Manhattan District Attorney's office filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing credibility issues with Strauss-Kahn's accuser, Nafissatou Diallo.

In a statement released shortly after Strauss-Kahn left the court smiling, he called the past couple of months a "nightmare" for him and his family.

"I want to thank all the friends in France and in the United States who have believed in my innocence, and to the thousands of people who sent us their support personally and in writing. I am most deeply grateful to my wife and family who have gone through this ordeal with me," he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Outside the courtroom, his lawyers praised Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for his "courageous decision" to drop the charges.

Following them, a stone-faced Kenneth Thompson, who represented Diallo, had harsh words for New York's top prosecutor.

"District Attorney Vance has abandoned an innocent woman and has denied an innocent woman the right to get justice in a rape case," the lawyer said.

"If Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a plumber from the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, do you really think that the district attorney would be running away from the DNA evidence?" he questioned, in sharp contrast to an insistence by Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, William W. Taylor, that the case was "not about wealth or power or race."

Diallo, a 33-year-old Guinean immigrant, alleged she was assaulted by Strauss-Kahn, 62, when she came to clean his suite at Manhattan's Sofitel hotel on May 14.

Strauss-Kahn had pleaded not guilty to the indictment that included criminal sexual assault in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, forcible touching and other charges.

The charges cost him his job as head of the IMF and dashed hopes he could lead the French Socialists against Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential election.