Suicide watch for jailed IMF chief
Source: Agencies |
May 19, 2011, Thursday
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INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn remained jailed under a suicide watch yesterday as a lawyer for the hotel maid who accused the French politician of attempted rape sought to rebut whispered allegations that her charges were a conspiracy and a setup.
Strauss-Kahn's arrest on charges including attempted rape shocked France and cast intense attention on his accuser, a 32-year-old chambermaid from the West African nation of Guinea who said she was attacked when she went to clean Strauss-Kahn's penthouse suite at the Sofitel Hotel.
Calls were intensifying for the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn to step down as head of the powerful IMF, with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying Strauss-Kahn "is obviously not in a position to run" the agency.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said at his client's arraignment this week that defense lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."
But the maid's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, dismissed suggestions that the woman had made up the charges or tried to cover up a consensual encounter.
"This is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this young woman," Shapiro said in an interview in his Manhattan office. He said that the woman didn't know who was staying in the 28th-floor suite she went to clean on Saturday afternoon, before she said she was attacked.
"She did not know who this man was until a day or two after this took place," Shapiro said. "She had no idea who this man was."
Media attention has made it impossible for his client to return to her house or to work, Shapiro said. This week television crews and photographers hung around the employee entrance of the Sofitel and loitered outside her apartment, hoping for a glimpse of her.
Strauss-Kahn is also charged with sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.
Meanwhile in Europe, Strauss-Kahn's past conduct with other women was getting new scrutiny.
The IMF investigated him following a 2008 affair with an employee, the Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The institution cleared him, but a person close to Nagy said on Tuesday that she had sent the organization a letter at the time warning about his behavior toward women.
The letter voiced "doubts about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's suitability for running an international institution," according to the person, who declined to be identified.
Strauss-Kahn's arrest on charges including attempted rape shocked France and cast intense attention on his accuser, a 32-year-old chambermaid from the West African nation of Guinea who said she was attacked when she went to clean Strauss-Kahn's penthouse suite at the Sofitel Hotel.
Calls were intensifying for the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn to step down as head of the powerful IMF, with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying Strauss-Kahn "is obviously not in a position to run" the agency.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said at his client's arraignment this week that defense lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."
But the maid's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, dismissed suggestions that the woman had made up the charges or tried to cover up a consensual encounter.
"This is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this young woman," Shapiro said in an interview in his Manhattan office. He said that the woman didn't know who was staying in the 28th-floor suite she went to clean on Saturday afternoon, before she said she was attacked.
"She did not know who this man was until a day or two after this took place," Shapiro said. "She had no idea who this man was."
Media attention has made it impossible for his client to return to her house or to work, Shapiro said. This week television crews and photographers hung around the employee entrance of the Sofitel and loitered outside her apartment, hoping for a glimpse of her.
Strauss-Kahn is also charged with sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.
Meanwhile in Europe, Strauss-Kahn's past conduct with other women was getting new scrutiny.
The IMF investigated him following a 2008 affair with an employee, the Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The institution cleared him, but a person close to Nagy said on Tuesday that she had sent the organization a letter at the time warning about his behavior toward women.
The letter voiced "doubts about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's suitability for running an international institution," according to the person, who declined to be identified.
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