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Former IMF chief wins bail; succession race rages
Source: Agencies |
May 20, 2011, Friday
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DOMINIQUE Strauss-Kahn won bail yesterday but faced one more night in a New York jail, hours after he quit as head of the IMF under the cloud of sex crime charges.
His resignation intensified a race for global finance's top job. It has gone to Europe for 65 years and the favorite is now French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde but fast-growing developing economies want to put up their own candidate.
A judge granted Strauss-Kahn US$1 million bail and ordered him to be detained in a New York apartment. He will be subject to electronic monitoring under the watch of an armed guard, costing him US$200,000 a month, a prosecutor estimated.
Prosecutors argued vehemently the French national should remain behind bars, calling him a flight risk.
"The defendant in this case has shown a propensity for impulsive criminal conduct," said prosecutor John McConnell.
He said the hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her on Saturday, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea, had told a "compelling and unwavering story."
Strauss-Kahn denies the charges and his lawyers say he will plead not guilty. His bail package was due to be signed today and an arraignment hearing, when he will formally answer the charges, was set for June 6.
The case represents a spectacular fall from grace for a man held in high esteem for his role in tackling the financial crisis of 2007-09 and being central to ongoing efforts to keep Europe's debt crisis under control.
Dressed in a blue shirt and gray jacket, Strauss-Kahn looked tired and whispered occasionally to his lawyer during Thursday's proceedings. He was flanked by seven guards as his wife and one of his daughters watched from the public gallery.
The charges that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape the maid and committed other sex offenses, plus the prospect of a lengthy legal process, have ruined his once strong-looking chances of winning France's presidential election next year.
One of his attorneys denied he would flee.
"I have to say that the prospect of Mr. Strauss-Kahn teleporting himself to France and living there as an accused sex offender, fugitive, is ludicrous on its face," lawyer William Taylor told the judge.
"He is an honorable man ... He has only one interest at this time and that is to clear his name."
In his resignation letter, composed at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail and released by the International Monetary Fund overnight, Strauss-Kahn vowed to fight the charges.
"I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he wrote.
A trial could be six months or more away. If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison.
A senior source at the IMF said Strauss-Kahn had tendered his resignation as managing director of his own accord. "He wasn't strong-armed," a source familiar with the events said.
One Strauss-Kahn attorney, Benjamin Brafman, has said the evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."
A lawyer for the alleged victim, who has gone into hiding to avoid media attention, told Reuters she opposed bail.
"The idea that the man who did this to her is now on the street, so to speak, and able to do what he wants to do in the world is something which is frightening to her," attorney Jeffrey Shapiro said.
His resignation intensified a race for global finance's top job. It has gone to Europe for 65 years and the favorite is now French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde but fast-growing developing economies want to put up their own candidate.
A judge granted Strauss-Kahn US$1 million bail and ordered him to be detained in a New York apartment. He will be subject to electronic monitoring under the watch of an armed guard, costing him US$200,000 a month, a prosecutor estimated.
Prosecutors argued vehemently the French national should remain behind bars, calling him a flight risk.
"The defendant in this case has shown a propensity for impulsive criminal conduct," said prosecutor John McConnell.
He said the hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her on Saturday, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea, had told a "compelling and unwavering story."
Strauss-Kahn denies the charges and his lawyers say he will plead not guilty. His bail package was due to be signed today and an arraignment hearing, when he will formally answer the charges, was set for June 6.
The case represents a spectacular fall from grace for a man held in high esteem for his role in tackling the financial crisis of 2007-09 and being central to ongoing efforts to keep Europe's debt crisis under control.
Dressed in a blue shirt and gray jacket, Strauss-Kahn looked tired and whispered occasionally to his lawyer during Thursday's proceedings. He was flanked by seven guards as his wife and one of his daughters watched from the public gallery.
The charges that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape the maid and committed other sex offenses, plus the prospect of a lengthy legal process, have ruined his once strong-looking chances of winning France's presidential election next year.
One of his attorneys denied he would flee.
"I have to say that the prospect of Mr. Strauss-Kahn teleporting himself to France and living there as an accused sex offender, fugitive, is ludicrous on its face," lawyer William Taylor told the judge.
"He is an honorable man ... He has only one interest at this time and that is to clear his name."
In his resignation letter, composed at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail and released by the International Monetary Fund overnight, Strauss-Kahn vowed to fight the charges.
"I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he wrote.
A trial could be six months or more away. If convicted, he could face 25 years in prison.
A senior source at the IMF said Strauss-Kahn had tendered his resignation as managing director of his own accord. "He wasn't strong-armed," a source familiar with the events said.
One Strauss-Kahn attorney, Benjamin Brafman, has said the evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."
A lawyer for the alleged victim, who has gone into hiding to avoid media attention, told Reuters she opposed bail.
"The idea that the man who did this to her is now on the street, so to speak, and able to do what he wants to do in the world is something which is frightening to her," attorney Jeffrey Shapiro said.
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