IMF head Strauss-Kahn charged over New York'sex crime'
http://timesofearth.com/Worldnews/?NT... New York - New York police said early Sunday, the head of the International Monetary Fund has been charged with criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment following a complaint by a hotel maid. Strauss-Kahn was taken off an Air France plane at John F Kennedy airport minutes before it left for Paris. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, widely expected to run for the French presidency in 2012, was taken off the Air France flight at John F Kennedy International Airport by police officers on Saturday. Paul J Browne, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesman, said he expected Strauss-Kahn would be formally arrested and charged shortly. A 32-year-old maid told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel near Manhattan's Times Square at about 1pm local time (1600 GMT) on Saturday. According to the maid's account, he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and tried to sexually assault her, Browne said. Browne said the allegations had been made by a 32-year-old woman who worked at the hotel, which has been identified as the Sofitel near Times Square. "We received a call that a chambermaid in a hotel in midtown Manhattan had been sexually assaulted by the occupant of a luxury suite at that hotel, and that that individual had fled," Browne said. Al Baker, a reporter for The New York Times, which broke the story, told AFP news agency that more details about the alleged attack had emerged. He is due to attend a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bailouts of Portugal and Greece. "The police investigators found his cell phone in the [hotel] room," he said. "There're some more details coming out according to the chamber maid's account, which is that she entered what she believed was his empty suite - Room 2286 - at the Sofitel Hotel, and he basically came out of the bathroom and grabbed her, locked the door and put her to the bed. "She broke free - this is according to her account. She fought him off; then he dragged her again down the hallway to the bathroom where another, second, alleged sex assault occurred." Police said Strauss-Kahn apparently left the hotel in a hurry. They then discovered he was at the airport, and contacted the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which pulled him off the flight. It was not immediately clear if the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn had been planning to leave New York for France on Saturday afternoon, police said. The maid was taken by police to an area hospital. John Sheehan, a spokesman for the hotel, said its staff was co-operating with the authorities in the investigation. William Murray, a spokesman for the IMF in Washington, said the IMF had no immediate comment on the reports of Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Strauss-Kahn's offices in Paris could not be reached when the news broke overnight in France, nor could French Socialist Party officials. The IMF chief belongs to the party and has been leading opinion polls for next year's elections. Before taking the top post at the IMF, Strauss-Kahn was a member of the French National Assembly and a professor of economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He had also served as France's minister of economy, finance and industry from June 1997 to November 1999. Strauss-Kahn, popularly known as "DSK" in France, was seen as the strongest possible challenger to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, though he had yet to declare his candidacy, remaining vague in interviews while feeding speculation that he wanted France's top job. He took over as head of the IMF in November 2007. The 187-nation lending agency, headquartered in Washington, provides help in the form of emergency loans for countries facing severe financial problems. Strauss-Kahn won praise for his leadership at the IMF during the financial crisis of 2008 and the severe global recession that followed. More recently, he has directed the IMF's participation in bailout efforts to keep a European debt crisis which began in Greece from destabilising the global economy. But his tenure at the IMF has also brought controversy, In October 2008, he apologised for "an error of judgment" over an affair with a junior colleague. Although cleared by an inquiry of harassment and abuse of power, he was warned by the fund's board of member countries against further improper conduct.
