French mother of alleged Strauss-Kahn victim 'outraged'

"I am outraged, morning, day and night. What I find truly revolting is the reaction of elected Socialists," Anne Mansouret, a Socialist party member and mother of writer Tristane Banon, who has lodged a formal complaint against Strauss-Kahn, told AFP.

A US judge on Tuesday dismissed a sex assault indictment against Strauss-Kahn stemming from allegations he attacked a maid at his luxury hotel suite in New York in May.

Before his arrest, Strauss-Kahn had been touted as a potential Socialist party candidate in next year's French presidential election.

"They are all repeating that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has emerged clean. No, he has not emerged clean," she said.

"The prosecutor is not risking a trial. But this does not in any way prejudice the civil suit brought by (Nafissatou) Diallo," the hotel maid who made the charges, she said.

"It angers me to hear both Mr Strauss-Kahn's friends and (Socialist leader) Martine Aubry herself (expressing their) happiness" at his release, Mansouret said.

Aubry on Tuesday said she was "immensely relieved" at Strauss-Kahn's release. "I am very happy for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and (his wife) Anne Sinclair," she said.

"I hope that this will bring us to also respect the word of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to let him do what he most wants to, that is to return to normal life and to express himself when he decides to," she said.

Other French Socialists have expressed relief at Strauss-Kahn's release, including presidential hopeful Francois Hollande who on Monday said he was "thrilled" at reports that prosecutors planned to drop the case.

Banon, 32, accuses Strauss-Kahn of attacking her during an interview in February 2003 in a central Paris flat.