International Monetary Fund Chief Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault

Photo Credit: AFP

NEW YORK — IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn vowed to fight charges of assaulting a hotel chambermaid, amid an explosive sex scandal which could bury his dreams of becoming the next French president.

The veteran French politician, who was arrested over the weekend after a New York chambermaid accused him of sexual assault, would defend himself against the allegations, lawyer Benjamin Brafman told reporters.

"He intends to vigorously defend these charges and denies any wrongdoing," Brafman said outside the courthouse where the IMF chief will appear on Monday.

Strauss-Kahn left a police station in Harlem late Sunday in handcuffs.

The bombshell news of his arrest has left the International Monetary Fund reeling, coming ahead of critical talks on repairing the painful fallout of the debt crisis sweeping the euro zone.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, has hired a barrage of top lawyers, as questions also swirled over whether he had the right to diplomatic immunity.

Another lawyer William Taylor told journalists outside the Manhattan court house that "we've agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow (Monday) morning."

Taylor said the delay was linked to Strauss-Kahn undergoing further testing by police searching for evidence.

"Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination," Taylor said, adding the IMF chief was "tired but he's fine."

Strauss-Kahn was yanked off an Air France flight on Saturday just minutes before take-off in a humiliating turn of events for one of the world's most powerful men.

A former French finance minister, he had been expected to throw his hat into the ring for the 2012 French election, challenging President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Strauss-Kahn has been charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted rape" of a 32-year-old woman.

The woman, employed for the past three years at the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square, picked Strauss-Kahn out of a line-up Sunday, as police said they had won a warrant to seek DNA evidence on his clothes.

The woman alleged he had assaulted her in his suite when he got out of his shower naked.

"She was in the room. She thought it was empty. That's when he approached her from behind and touched her inappropriately. He forced her to perform a sexual act on him," a police spokesman told AFP.

He described the victim as "female, black, 32 years old," but could not confirm details given in the New York Times that the IMF chief pulled her into the bedroom and onto the bed and then locked the door.

She managed to fight him off, but he dragged her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaulted her a second time, the daily said.

MSNBC television said that in the bathroom, Strauss-Kahn forced the maid to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear.

Strauss-Kahn's wife, high-profile French television journalist Anne Sinclair, said however she did not believe the allegations against her husband, telling AFP: "I have no doubt his innocence will be established."

Strauss-Kahn, who has been widely praised for his stewardship of the IMF, is so well known in France he is often referred to simply by his initials DSK.

Even though he has not yet officially declared his candidacy in next year's French president elections, he had been topping the opinion polls.

News of his arrest threw the Socialist party into disarray, and could prove a boost for Sarkozy and his rightwing UMP which is also facing a challenge from the far-right National Front and its leader Marine Le Pen.

Conspiracy theories immediately began circulating in France speculating that the events were just an elaborate set-up to discredit Strauss-Kahn.