IMF chief jailed in sex assault case

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was denied bail and sent to New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail Monday, a crushing blow as he fights charges that he assaulted and tried to rape a hotel maid.

Hours after his bail request was rejected, Strauss-Kahn was dispatched to Rikers, a dramatic fall for a man who oversaw the world economy for the last four years, has long enjoyed a luxury lifestyle. To page 8

He was tipped to be France’s next president. He is being held in protective custody in an 11-by-13-foot cell to prevent attack from other inmates, officials said.

“This is not about isolating the inmate from any human contact,” said a spokesman for New York’s Department of Correction. “This is about preventing the inmate from being

victimized or harmed in some way as a result of his high profile.”

Unshaven and looking drained and tense, Strauss-Kahn had earlier listened grimly in a Manhattan Court as prosecutors detailed his alleged assault against a maid in a luxury New York City hotel suite on Saturday.

His lawyers said Strauss-Kahn, 62, is innocent and they tried to have him released on $1 million bail, but prosecutors convinced the judge he might flee to France and she ordered him held behind bars. Strauss-Kahn faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

He is accused of attacking the 32-year-old maid when she went to clean his $3,000-a-day suite in the Sofitel hotel near Times Square.

“He sexually assaulted her and attempted to forcibly rape her. When he was unsuccessful, he forced her to perform oral sex on him,” assistant district attorney John McConnell told the Court on Monday.

It was a humiliating Court appearance for Strauss-Kahn, who before Saturday was seen as a strong candidate in France’s presidential election and has won praise for his leadership of the International Monetary Fund during the 2007-2009 global financial meltdown as well as the euro zone’s debt crisis. His arrest is also extremely embarrassing for the IMF.

Reuters