Ms Banon's claims relate to an incident in Paris nearly a decade ago French writer Tristane Banon is to file a complaint for attempted rape against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, her lawyer says.
Ms Banon accuses Mr Strauss-Kahn of trying to assault her as she tried to interview him in a Paris flat in 2003.Mr Strauss-Kahn said he would sue Ms Banon for making false statements.
He was recently freed from house arrest in New York in a separate alleged case. He denies sexually assaulting a hotel maid in the city on 14 May.
It was shortly after Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York that Ms Banon came forward to say that he had tried to assault her.
She did not go to the police at the time, but did raise the allegation in a TV chat show in 2007, when Mr Strauss-Kahn's name was bleeped out.
Ms Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said on Monday that she had instructed him "to file a formal criminal complaint for attempted rape" against Mr Strauss-Kahn. He said the complaint would be filed on Tuesday.
"These acts are extremely serious," Mr Koubbi said as he announced the legal action in France. "These events were combined with a violence that was absolutely remarkable for these kinds of cases."
In an interview with French newspaper L'Express, he said the alleged incident took place in February 2003, and not in 2002 as previously reported.
'Revolted' Ms Banon, 32, has claimed that during the interview, Mr Strauss-Kahn said he would only speak to her if she held his hand.
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Strauss-Kahn allegations
- 2006: Publication of Sexus Politicus, book by Christophe Deloire and Christophe Dubois, with chapter on Mr Strauss-Kahn and his tendency of "seduction to the point of obsession"
- 2008: Mr Strauss-Kahn admits an affair with IMF colleague; he admits an "error of judgement"
- 2011: Mr Strauss-Kahn arrested on 14 May in New York, accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid
- 16 May: Writer Tristane Banon comes forward to say Mr Strauss-Kahn tried to assault her in an interview nearly a decade before
- 1 July: Mr Strauss-Kahn freed without bail from New York house arrest
According to her version of events, she eventually had to fight him off as they wrestled on the floor and he tried to unhook her bra and undo her jeans.
Mr Strauss-Kahn's French lawyers said on Monday they had been instructed to file a legal complaint against Ms Banon for making false statements about "imaginary" events.Mr Strauss-Kahn had been a leading contender to be the French Socialist Party's presidential candidate before his arrest in May.
Concerns about the reliability of his accuser in New York have left that case reportedly in trouble, and led to speculation that he might return to French politics.
However, on Monday Socialist Party spokesman Benoit Hamon said the idea that Mr Strauss-Kahn could now run for the presidency was "the weakest" of all possible scenarios.
Ms Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, herself a politician from Mr Strauss-Kahn's centre-left Socialist Party, said she had persuaded her daughter not to file a complaint at the time of the alleged incident.
But Ms Mansouret has said she is "revolted" by the gleeful reaction of many men in France to news the case in New York might fail.
Mr Koubbi told L'Express that he and his client had decided to press charges in mid-June, and that the timing of the decision was not linked to Mr Strauss-Kahn's US trial.
He had previously said it would not be filed until "later", to avoid any competition with the New York case against Mr Strauss-Kahn.
"I have always said that the French case and the American case ought not be linked," Mr Koubbi said on Monday. "I didn't want to interfere with how the American case was unfolding."
Ms Banon is the god-daughter of Mr Strauss-Kahn's second wife, Brigitte Guillemette.
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