Strauss-Kahn to appear on primetime French TV

Question time: TV presenter Claire Chazal is a friend of Mrs Strauss-Khan (AFP/Getty)

The former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Khan will be interviewed by his wife's friend on the most watched French television news programme tomorrow night.

For his first interview since he was arrested in New York in May on rape charges – which have since been dropped – Mr Strauss-Kahn is taking no chances. After negotiations conducted by his wife, Anne Sinclair, he has chosen to appear on the Sunday 8pm news bulletin on TF1, hosted by Ms Sinclair's former colleague and close friend, Claire Chazal.

Ms Chazal is bound to ask Mr Strauss-Kahn to speak publicly, for the first time, about what happened in the Manhattan Sofitel in May. He is expected to say very little. Friends have said that he has been forbidden by his American lawyers to discuss in detail the accusations of attempted rape made by the chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo.

But the former French Finance Minister, 62, is likely to dismiss the allegations by a French writer, Tristane Banon, 32, that he attempted to rape her during an interview in 2004. French prosecutors will make a decision shortly on whether to place Mr Strauss-Kahn under formal investigation.

The charges against him in New York were dropped last month.