Strauss-Kahn heading home?

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn was believed to be heading to his native France on Saturday, leaving the United States behind after the collapse of a sensational sexual-assault case that cost him his job and possibly his French presidential ambitions.

Strauss-Kahn and his wife were believed to be on a flight from New York to Paris after being spotted arriving at the Air France terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, dogged by a crowd of cameras. They did not say where they were going as they headed for security, but French media have reported Strauss-Kahn was expected to board a plane to Paris on Saturday.

The Air France flight Strauss-Kahn was believed to be on departed for Paris at 7:29 p.m. EDT, according to the airline’s computerized flight- status system.

The couple had left his rented New York City town home earlier in the day, in the company of his daughter, Camille, carrying about a half-dozen pieces of luggage.

It would be the diplomat and economist’s first return to his native France since his May arrest on charges of forcing a hotel housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, to perform oral sex and trying to rape her.

Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a lawsuit.