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Rediff.com  » Business » Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges
This article was first published 13 years ago

Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges

Last updated on: May 20, 2011 11:04 IST

Image: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn gestures during his bail hearing inside of the New York State Supreme Courthouse in New York.
Photographs: Reuters. Betwa Sharma in New York

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was granted bail by a New York court shortly after he was formally indicted on all sexual assault charges.

The court agreed to free Strauss-Kahn from a New York City jail on bail terms of $1 million in cash and also on the condition that he would remain under house arrest in a Manhattan apartment under the watch of armed guards.

Strauss-Kahn is allowed to stay with his wife in the apartment.

Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges

Image: Wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves New York Court with daughter.
Photographs: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters.
On June 6, the court will hold an arraignment hearing in which the exact charges will be revealed.

The former IMF chief, who was indicted on all seven counts, is accused of groping and mauling a Guinean maid in his room at Sofitel hotel in Times Square and forcibly tried to have oral sex with her.

Since, prosecutors have argued that he is at flight risk, Strauss-Kahn has to wear an electronic monitoring device and he will be monitored by armed guards at his own expense.

Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges

Image: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn gestures during his bail hearing.
Photographs: Reuters.
Strauss-Kahn, however, has to spend one more night at the Rikers Island prison where he being held since Monday.

He also has to provide $5 million as collateral and turn over all his travel documents. 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn looked tired as he sat in court wearing a blue shirt and gray jacket without a tie.

His wife, Anne Sinclair, a French TV journalist, was present in court along with their daughter.

Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges

Image: Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn listens to his lawyer, Williams Taylor.
Photographs: Reuters.
Prosecutors had cited the example of film director Roman Polanski, who fled from the US in 1977 after admitting to engage in unlawful sex with a minor.

Strauss-Kahn, however, has given up his extradition rights, which he is granted as a French citizen.

On Saturday, he was pulled off a Paris-bound flight minutes before take-off and was taken into custody at New York's JFK airport.

Strauss-Kahn gets bail, indicted on sex charges

Image: An NYPD prisoner movement slip for IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Photographs: Reuters.
Strauss-Kahn denied wrongdoing and is expected to plead not guilty. His lawyers have also said that the sex was consensual.

On Wednesday, Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF. Strauss-Kahn, a socialist politician, was seen as a possible contender in the 2012 presidential elections in French.