The hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault sued the New York Post and five of its journalists for libel on Tuesday for reporting that she was a prostitute.

The 32-year-old Guinean immigrant accused the Post of publishing defamatory articles between July 2-4 in an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales.

The Post said in a statement: We stand by our reporting.

The suit filed in Bronx state court seeks damages to be determined at trial for articles it said the Post knew were false or should have known were false before they were published.

On Friday prosecutors called into question the woman's credibility for a series of lies about her background including a false story about being gang-raped on her application for U.S. asylum.

The case against Strauss-Kahn appeared to be unraveling, and he has vehemently denied the charges, but a seven-count indictment against him remained in effect.

The Post reported on Saturday that the Sofitel housekeeper was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests. An article the following day reported that the housekeeper continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors.

All of these statements are false, have subjected the plaintiff to humiliation, scorn and ridicule throughout the world by falsely portraying her as a prostitute or as a woman who trades her body for money and they constitute defamation and libel per se, the suit said.

The woman named five journalists as defendants but sued using only her initials, not her full name. U.S. media have withheld her name in keeping with the practice of reporting on sexual assault cases, though her name has been widely reported in the French press.

(Reporting by Noeleen Walder and Jennifer Golson; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Sandra Maler)

International Monetary Fund United nations