IMF chief charged over attempted rape,sex attack on hotel maid

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New York, May 15 : IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, tipped to run for the French Presidency in 2012, was charged today with attempted rape and sexual assault on a hotel maid in New York, after being dragged out from a Paris-bound airplane, minutes before it was to take off.
62-year-old Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund since 2007, was taken off an Air France plane''s first-class cabin at the John F Kennedy International Airport and apprehended by detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The New York Police Department arrested Kahn at 2:15 am Sunday "on charges of criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connection with a sexual assault on a 32-year chambermaid in the luxury suite of a Midtown Manhattan hotel yesterday" about 1 pm, Deputy Commissioner Paul J Browne, the department''s chief spokesman, said.
Two detectives of the Port Authority suddenly boarded Air France Flight 23, as the plane idled at the departure gate, John P L Kelly, a spokesman for the agency said.
"It was 10 minutes before its scheduled departure," said Kelly. "They were just about to close the doors."
Reached by telephone, Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer, said he would be representing Strauss-Kahn with William Taylor, a lawyer in Washington, New York Times reported.
"We have not yet been able to meet with our client and we may have more to say tomorrow," said Brafman, who said he had been contacted late Saturday night.
He said Strauss-Kahn was being housed at the police department''s Special Victims Unit.
Authorities were investigating an alleged attack on a maid at the Sofitel New York hotel earlier in the day, police said.
The IMF chief was in the shower when the 32-year-old maid entered his room at the Sofitel on West 44th Street in Manhattan yesterday. He allegedly emerged naked from the shower, grabbed the maid and forced her to perform oral sex, the media here said.
According to an account published by local media, the maid entered Kahn''s suite believing it was unoccupied.
The maid was taken by police to hospital and was being treated for minor injuries. A spokesman for the hotel said its staff is cooperating with the investigations.
In Washington, the IMF had no immediate comments on the incident involving its chief.
Strauss-Kahn had earlier won praise for his handling of the global financial crisis as the IMF head. .