IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a likely candidate for French President in 2012, was arrested today and charged with attempted rape, sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment of a hotel maid here, after being pulled 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 (IMF) 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.

His attorneys William Taylor and Benjamin Brafman said that he would plead not guilty.

“The IMF chief will plead not guilty to all charges,” Taylor said.

The New York Police Department arrested Mr Kahn and took him into custody for questioning “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” earlier this afternoon, Deputy Commissioner Paul J Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said.

Investigators found his cellphone in the room, which he had left behind, and one law enforcement official said that investigation uncovered forensic evidence that would contain his DNA.

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Published on May 15, 2011