Dominique Strauss-Kahn sues hotel maid

The former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a $1m countersuit against the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, costing him his job and any chance of being elected president of France.

Police arrested Mr Strauss-Kahn a year ago when the hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of forcible oral sex and trying to rape her in his suite at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. Prosecutors later dropped charges after losing confidence in Ms Diallo's credibility.

The countersuit was filed on Monday on the anniversary of the incident and a day before François Hollande – the Socialist who took the nomination that Mr Strauss-Kahn once coveted – was sworn in as president of France.

Mr Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations, saying the sexual encounter with Ms Diallo was consensual. Ms Diallo nonetheless sued Mr Strauss-Kahn for unspecified damages in the Supreme Court in the New York city borough of the Bronx. Mr Strauss-Kahn denies all wrongdoing in the countersuit and accuses Ms Diallo of "knowingly and intentionally making a false report to law enforcement authorities".