New York: IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been formally charged with sexual assault and attempted rape following a complaint by a maid of a local hotel, police announced on Sunday.
Strauss-Kahn, widely expected to run for the French presidency next year, was detained on Saturday and quizzed over an alleged sexual assault on a New York hotel maid, police said.
The IMF managing director was escorted off an Air France flight just minutes before it was to take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.
In Washington, an International Monetary Fund spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
Strauss-Kahn was taken off the Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to police on Saturday afternoon, said Paul J. Browne, New York Police Department spokesman.
He was being questioned by the NYPD special victims office. Strauss-Kahn had retained an attorney and was not making statements to police, Browne said.
"He's being arrested for a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment," Browne said. The 32-year-old woman told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel not far from Manhattan's Times Square at about 1pm Eastern time (1600 GMT) Saturday and he attacked her, Browne said.
She said she had been told to clean the spacious $3000-a-night-suite suite, which she had been told was empty. According to an account the woman provided to police, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her.
She said she fought him off, then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.
When New York City police detectives arrived moments later, Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his cellphone, Browne said. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.
The NYPD discovered that he was at the airport and contacted Port Authority officials, who plucked Kahn from first class on the Air France flight that was scheduled to depart at 4:40 p.m. and was just about to leave the gate.
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/imf-chief-formally-charged-with-sexual-assault-police-1.807923
Strauss-Kahn, widely expected to run for the French presidency next year, was detained on Saturday and quizzed over an alleged sexual assault on a New York hotel maid, police said.
The IMF managing director was escorted off an Air France flight just minutes before it was to take off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.
In Washington, an International Monetary Fund spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
Strauss-Kahn was taken off the Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to police on Saturday afternoon, said Paul J. Browne, New York Police Department spokesman.
He was being questioned by the NYPD special victims office. Strauss-Kahn had retained an attorney and was not making statements to police, Browne said.
"He's being arrested for a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment," Browne said. The 32-year-old woman told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel not far from Manhattan's Times Square at about 1pm Eastern time (1600 GMT) Saturday and he attacked her, Browne said.
She said she had been told to clean the spacious $3000-a-night-suite suite, which she had been told was empty. According to an account the woman provided to police, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her.
She said she fought him off, then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman was able to break free again and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.
When New York City police detectives arrived moments later, Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his cellphone, Browne said. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.
The NYPD discovered that he was at the airport and contacted Port Authority officials, who plucked Kahn from first class on the Air France flight that was scheduled to depart at 4:40 p.m. and was just about to leave the gate.
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/imf-chief-formally-charged-with-sexual-assault-police-1.807923
