International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn released his letter of resignation early Thursday. Dated Wednesday May 18, Strauss-Kahn’s letter says he feels compelled to resign to protect the institution.
Behind bars on New York’s Rikers Island since Monday, the beleaguered former IMF chief is scheduled to return to a Manhattan court Thursday afternoon to again ask for bail on charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid – a move seemed certain to face vigorous opposition by prosecutors.
In court papers filed by his defense team Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn said he had surrendered his passport and wouldn’t flee the country. His attorneys proposed posting $1 million cash bail and confining him to the home of his daughter, Camille, a Columbia University graduate student, 24 hours a day with electronic monitoring.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, “is a loving husband and father, and a highly regarded diplomat, politician, lawyer, politician, economist and professor, with no criminal record,” his attorneys wrote.
A court official told reporters that a judge will hear arguments for bail at a hearing on Thursday. A judge ruled earlier this week that the wealthy, 62-year-old French national could be a flight risk.
Meanwhile, the hotel maid whom the IMF chief has been accused of assaulting was reported to have testified against him Wednesday. A lawyer for the 32-year-old woman said she would tell a grand jury in New York that there was “nothing consensual” about her encounter in Strauss-Kahn’s hotel room last week. The woman, a widowed mother originally from Guinea, alleges that Strauss-Kahn groped and assaulted her in his luxurious hotel suite.
Strauss-Kahn is one of France’s highest-profile politicians and was seen as a potential candidate for president in next year’s elections. His arrest shocked France.
