DSK seeks diplomatic immunity in civil case

NEW YORK - Dominique Strauss-Kahn is citing diplomatic immunity in asking a judge to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by the New York City hotel maid who says he sexually assaulted her.

Attorneys for the former International Monetary Fund leader filed the motion in a Bronx court on Monday. They say that Strauss-Kahn's position as head of the fund gives him immunity from the civil litigation.

Earlier, however, the State Department performed a legal review of the case and decided Dominique Strauss-Kahn didn't have diplomatic immunity because, when he was arrested, he was not on official business for the IMF. That ruling was made in regards to the criminal case, and it is not clear how that will affect the civil case.

Sex assault charges against the 62-year-old French diplomat were recently dismissed after prosecutors said they had lost faith in the woman's credibility.

The maid has accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex in his hotel suite on May 14.

In a recent interview on French television, he called the encounter a "moral failing." In a different incident, a French writer has accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in 2003.