IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was to face charges in a New York court on Monday of trying to rape a hotel chambermaid as lawyers back in France threatened to file another sex assault complaint.
While pundits predicted the scandal would scupper the veteran politician’s chances of becoming the next French president, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman said his client would vigorously defend himself against claims that he trapped the maid in a luxury Manhattan hotel and sexually assaulted her. The woman, employed for the past three years at the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square, picked Strauss-Kahn out of a line-up on Sunday, as police said they had won a warrant to seek DNA evidence on his clothes. “He intends to vigorously defend these charges and denies any wrongdoing,” Brafman told reporters. The bombshell news of the arrest of one of the world’s most powerful men has left the International Monetary Fund reeling, ahead of critical talks in Brussels on Monday on the fallout of the debt crisis sweeping the eurozone. Strauss-Kahn, 62, has hired a barrage of top lawyers, as questions swirled over whether he could escape prosecution. But late Sunday, a New York police spokesman said the IMF chief did not have the right to diplomatic immunity. Another lawyer, William Taylor, told journalists outside a Manhattan courthouse that the arraignment was postponed until Monday so Strauss-Kahn could undergo further testing by police. “Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination,” Taylor said.
