[ 2011-05-19 ]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

IMF chief says he is stepping down to focus on defense
The head of the International Monetary Fund has
tendered his resignation amid mounting calls he
step down after being jailed on charges he
sexually assaulted a maid in his upscale hotel
suite.

In a brief letter to the IMF executive board late
Wednesday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn proclaimed his
innocence.

He said he was stepping down to "protect this
institution which I have served with honor and
devotion, and especially -- especially -- I want
to devote all my strength, all my time and all my
energy to proving my innocence."

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the
greatest possible firmness all of the allegations
that have been made against me," he said.

The resignation came as his attorneys are
preparing to appeal Thursday to New York's Supreme
Court to release their client on bail.

He has agreed to post $1 million in cash, to be
confined to home detention in Manhattan with
electronic monitoring and to turn over his U.N.
travel document to "eliminate any concern that Mr.
Strauss-Kahn would or could leave this court's
jurisdiction," attorney Shawn P. Naunton wrote in
the appeal.

A tentative deal was in the works that could
result in his release on bail as early as
Thursday, a source close to the defense told CNN.

The appeal adds a number of conditions, including
electronic monitoring, which were not in a bail
request turned down Monday by a criminal court
judge in Manhattan.

The appeal to the state Supreme Court describes
the accused as "a loving husband and father, and a
highly regarded international diplomat, lawyer,
politician, economist and professor, with no prior
criminal record."

It also said Strauss-Kahn has been married for
more than a decade and has four children from a
prior marriage, one of whom is a graduate student
at Columbia University in New York.

The case has captured worldwide attention since
Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an airplane and
charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape
of a 32-year-old Guinean maid in his hotel suite.

His arrest has set French political circles abuzz
as the international economist was widely
considered the French Socialist Party's best hope
to unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's
elections.

Calls for Strauss-Kahn's resignation have mounted
in recent days.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said
Strauss-Kahn was "obviously not in a position to
run the IMF."

Austria's finance minister Maria Fekter urged him
to step down.

"He should think about whether he is damaging the
institution," Fekter said.

Analysts suggest his career and political future
are in jeopardy, if not already dead.

"I do not see how he can perform his duties as
director of the IMF," Jean-Francois Cope,
secretary-general of France's ruling UMP party,
told reporters Wednesday.

"So, by definition, this issue should be resolved
in the coming days."

Prosecutors allege that a naked Strauss-Kahn, 62,
chased the housekeeping employee through his
Manhattan hotel suite on Saturday and sexually
assaulted her.

But his attorney Benjamin Brafman disputed the
allegation, saying "forensic evidence, we believe,
will not be consistent with a forcible account,
and we believe there is a very, very defensible
case."

The IMF chief faces an array of charges, including
two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act,
one count of first-degree attempted rape, one
count of first-degree sexual abuse, one count of
second-degree unlawful imprisonment, one count of
forcible touching and one count of third-degree
sexual abuse.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking the maid
about noon, shortly before he checked out of the
Sofitel. After lunch, he was driven to John F.
Kennedy International Airport and boarded an Air
France flight, authorities said.

As he sat in first class awaiting takeoff and a
planned meeting the next day with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, followed by a
meeting with European finance ministers on Monday
in Brussels, his world of luxury and power came
crashing down.

Police, alerted by hotel staff to the maid's
accusations, ordered him off the plane and placed
him in custody.

Strauss-Kahn was examined for scratches and DNA
samples were taken, and investigators searched for
other evidence in the suite, including possible
bodily fluids from both individuals, a law
enforcement official told CNN.

He consented to the testing after investigators
prepared a search warrant, said the official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was
not authorized to release the information.

Source - CNN

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