Dominique Strauss-Kahn sues rape allegation maid Nafissatou Diallo for $1m

Former world finance boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has made a one million dollar counter-claim against the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, saying she seriously damaged his reputation with what he calls a bogus allegation.

The disgraced French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund said in court papers that the Guinean-born Nafissatou Diallo made a "malicious and wanton false accusation" when she said he attacked her one year ago after she arrived to clean his hotel suite.

Married Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, says whatever happened was consensual, and he has denied doing anything violent.

The criminal case against him was dismissed after prosecutors lost faith in Ms Diallo's credibility. She then filed a civil lawsuit accusing him of assault. A judge this month rebuffed Mr Strauss-Kahn's claim that he had diplomatic immunity.

Ms Diallo's lawyers called the counter-suit a "desperate ploy."

Ms Diallo, now 33, says Mr Strauss-Kahn chased her down, tried to yank down her tights and forced her to perform oral sex.

He was arrested, resigned from the IMF and spent several days behind bars and three months on house arrest before prosecutors dropped the criminal case, saying Ms Diallo had lied about her background and changed her account of what she did after leaving the hotel room.

Ms Diallo's lawyers called Strauss-Kahn's defamation claim an example of the "misogynistic attitude" of a man who now faces preliminary charges of being involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France. As of last week, French investigators also were studying accusations that Mr Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape during a sex party in a Washington hotel in 2010. Separately, a French writer accused him last year of having tried to rape her during a 2003 interview, an accusation prosecutors said was too old to try.

He denies all the allegations.

AP