Strauss-Kahn accuser did not know who he was

The woman who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape did not know about his position as a top-ranked French politician or as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

The 32-year old woman is a maid from the West African nation of Guinea. Police told sources the incident took place when the housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan, at Strauss-Kahn's $3,000 per might suite.

Strauss-Kahn, was arrested on Saturday and arraigned on Monday when he was charged with committing a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. He has pleaded not guilty.

Strauss-Kahn has an alibi, according to RTL radio sources. He has told investigators that he was with his daughter in a restaurant in New York at the time the attack reportedly took place.

Strauss-Khan's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman said at Monday's arraignment that his defense team believes forensic evidence will not be consistent with a forcible encounter, according to AP.

The woman's lawyer on Wednesday said the current situation was about equal justice under the law.

She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice, and she's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful, the woman's lawyer Jeffrey Shapiro told the Associated Press. What (Strauss-Kahn) might be able to get away with in some countries, he can't here in this country.

It was unclear why Strauss-Kahn was in New York at the time of the alleged attack. The IMF- a multi-national organization which lends to countries in financial difficulties - is based in Washington D.C.

Shapiro said the incident is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this woman, he said.

She did not know who this man was until a day or two after this took place, Shapiro said. She had no idea who this man was.

On Saturday afternoon, Police officers in plain clothes belonging to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded an Air France plane Flight 23 at about 4:45 p.m. as it waited for takeoff and took him into custody.

Three police officers pulled Kahn from the plane's first-class cabin and turned him over to New York Police Department officers from the Midtown South precinct.