IMF chief arrested; charged over attempted rape, sex assault

From Betwa Sharma
New York, May 15 (PTI) IMF chief Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, a likely candidate for French President in 2012,
was arrested Sunday and charged with attempted rape and sexual
assault on a hotel maid here, after being pulled out from a
Paris-bound airplane, minutes before it was to take off.
62-year-old Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director
of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund since
2007, was taken off an Air France plane's first-class cabin at
the John F Kennedy International Airport and apprehended by
detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The IMF chief will plead not guilty to all charges,
his lawyer William Taylor said.
The New York Police Department arrested Kahn at 2:15
AM Sunday "on charges of criminal sexual act, attempted rape,
and an unlawful imprisonment in connection with a sexual
assault on a 32-year chambermaid in the luxury suite of a
Midtown Manhattan hotel yesterday" about 1 pm, Deputy
Commissioner Paul J Browne, the department's chief spokesman,
said.
Browne said that it was about 1 PM local time
Saturday when the maid entered Strauss-Kahn's USD 3,000-a-
night suite of Sofitel New York hotel, believing it was
unoccupied.
The IMF chief was in the shower when the 32-year-old
maid entered his room at the hotel on West 44th Street in
Manhattan Saturday.
As she was in the foyer, "he came out of the bathroom,
fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her," Browne
was quoted as saying by NYT. "He grabs her, according to her
account, and pulls her into the bedroom and onto the bed,"
Browne said, adding he locked the door to the suite.
"She fights him off, and he then drags her down the
hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaults her a
second time," he said.
MSNBC television reported that in the bathroom, the
IMF chief forced the maid to perform oral sex on him and tried
to remove her underwear.
At some point during the assault, the woman broke free
and "fled, reported it to other hotel personnel, who called
911. When the police arrived, he was not there," Browne said,
adding Strauss-Kahn appeared to have left in a hurry.
Investigators found his cellphone in the room, which
he had left behind, and one law enforcement official said that
investigation uncovered forensic evidence that would contain
his DNA.
The maid was taken by police to hospital and was being
treated for minor injuries. A spokesman for the hotel said its
staff is cooperating with the investigations.

Strauss-Kahn drove to the airport to catch the Paris
bound Air France Flight 23. As he settled down in the first
class cabin, two detectives of the Port Authority suddenly
boarded the plane and took him out, John P L Kelly, a
spokesman for the agency said.
"It was 10 minutes before its scheduled departure,"
said Kelly. "They were just about to close the doors."
Strauss-Kahn was being housed at the police
department's Special Victims Unit.
In Washington, the IMF said, "Strauss-Kahn has
retained legal counsel, and the IMF has no comment on the
case; all inquiries will be referred to his personal lawyer
and to the local authorities."
"The IMF remains fully functioning and operational,"
said a statement issued by Caroline Atkinson, the IMF's head
of external relations.
Strauss-Kahn had earlier won praise for his handling
of the global financial crisis as the IMF head.
Strauss-Kahn, who was widely expected to stand in the
2012 French presidential elections as a Socialist candidate
against incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, was in 2008 also embroiled
in a controversy after accusations surfaced of his sexual
relationship with one of his subordinates, a Hungarian
economist, in the IMF's Africa Department.
The IMF board, which investigated the case that time,
ruled his actions "reflected a serious error of judgement" but
that the relationship had been consensual.
Kahn had then apologised to IMF staff and his
wife, US-born French TV personality Anne Sinclair.
"While this incident constituted an error in judgement
on my part, for which I take full responsibility, I firmly
believe that I have not abused my position," Kahn wrote in an
email to IMF staff after the affair became public.
Sinclaire is his third wife. He has four children from
two previous marriages.
Strauss-Kahn, had served as France's Minister of
Economy and Finance from 1997 to 1999.
A Port authority spokesperson SAID, Strauss-Kahn was
traveling alone and was not handcuffed during the
apprehension. The IMF chief "complied with the detectives'
directions," Kelly said.
Strauss-Kahn, who had a meeting planned with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, has a special arrangement with Air
France that allows him to get on any flight and sit in first
class, unnamed sources were quoted as saying by the New York
Post.
In France's 2007 election, Strauss-Kahn lost the
Socialist Party nomination to Segolene Royal, who in turn was
defeated by Sarkozy, leader of the right-wing Union for a
Popular Movement.