New questions raised over Dominique-Strauss Kahn case

Sofitel staff were seen high-fiving and celebrating Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest on sex charges,

* Mr Strauss-Kahn was tipped off that his BlackBerry might have been hacked, which then went missing the same day of alleged sexual assault

* A friend warned him that an effort would be made to derail his presidential campaigns with a scandal

* Hotel staff were seen 'high-fiving' after alleged incident with maid in New York

Someone sure seemed happy that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had gotten in trouble at a Manhattan hotel.

The chief engineer of the posh Sofitel New York in Midtown high-fived someone who appears to work in the hotel’s security office shortly after learning Strauss-Kahn may have sexually assaulted a maid, says an explosive new report.

“The two men high-five each other, clap their hands, and do what looks like an extraordinary dance of celebration that lasts for three minutes,” says the story in the New York Review of Books.

The article’s implication is that Strauss-Kahn, a rival to French President Nicholas Sarkozy, may have been set up by political opponents in the May 14 incident.

It says that at least one private e-mail Strauss-Kahn sent from his BlackBerry to his wife had been seen workers of Sarkozy’s political party — suggesting he was under electronic surveillance.

It also cites links between security staff of France’s Accor Group — the Sofitel’s owner — and Sarkozy.

The story, published today on the Internet, brought heated denials from Sarkozy’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement, which known in France by the initials UMP.

The idea of a plot against Strauss-Kahn is “absolutely ridiculous,” said Jean-Francois Cope, the UMP’s secretary general.

“To imagine that what happened to Mr Strauss-Kahn was the object of any kind of involvement by the UMP, excuse me, but let me say that it’s a bit obvious as a manipulation,” he said.

Though criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were dropped, the scandal scuttled his hopes to run for France’s presidency and forced him to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund.