Hi °C | Lo °C 
The hotel maid suing Dominique Strauss-Kahn (63) is invoking a law that's too ambiguous, his lawyers said in asking a judge to throw out part of her sexual assault claim.
The 12-year-old New York law is "impermissibly vague," lawyers for the former International Monetary Fund chief wrote in newly filed papers.
The filing marks Mr Strauss-Kahn's latest effort to fight the legal fallout from his May 2011 encounter with Nafissatou Diallo. She calls it a sexual attack. He terms it consensual.
Prosecutors dropped related criminal charges, but Ms Diallo is pursuing a civil action. One of her lawyers, Douglas Wigdor, said he was confident the challenge to the gender-based violence law would prove futile.
It's unclear how often such claims have been made under the law. No court has issued a decision interpreting it, according to lawyers for Mr Strauss-Kahn, pictured.
The law lets people sue if they have been injured by a violent crime "due, at least in part, to an animus based on the victim's gender".
It isn't clear what that means, Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers say.
Irish Independent
