Strauss-Kahn boosts New York tourism

NEW YORK—The posh New York apartment building where resigned IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under house arrest on sexual assault charges has become a tourist hot spot.

The former leader of the powerful International Monetary Fund (IMF) is temporarily being held at the Empire Building at No. 71 Broadway, a stone’s throw from Wall Street and the Ground Zero site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Tourists on open-top buses pointing their cameras at the luxury high rise have become a common sight in lower Manhattan.

Journalists from US and foreign media organizations also have gathered around the clock outside the 21-story building where Strauss-Kahn is holed up with his wife, Anne Sinclair.

Sinclair, a prominent French TV journalist before her marriage to Strauss-Kahn, was spotted leaving the building late Sunday morning and getting into an SUV, destination unknown. She returned four hours later.

Sinclair has stood by her 62-year-old husband who is accused of sexually assaulting a 32-year-old chambermaid last weekend in his $3,000-a-night suite at Sofitel hotel, near Manhattan’s Times Square. He has denied the allegations.

Strauss-Kahn was released from Rikers Island jail on Friday on a $1-million cash bail plus a $5-million insurance bond. But he must wear an electronic bracelet and live under constant video camera surveillance with an armed private guard—and pay for those security services that cost about $200,000 a month.

The defendant has been moved temporarily to the Empire Building after another tony Manhattan building on the Upper East Side rejected him. Residents in the building complained about the throng of police and media gathered outside.

A former finance minister and once considered the strongest contender for the French presidency in next year’s elections, Strauss-Kahn is scheduled to appear in court again on June 6 to formally enter his plea.

Shaking, spitting

The hotel maid told police she was forced to perform oral sex on a naked Strauss-Kahn in his suite and that he tried to rip her clothes off.

A report published on Sunday by the online investigative journalism site, Center for Public Integrity, sheds light on what took place in the hour after the alleged assault at Sofitel hotel on the late morning of May 14.

Citing anonymous sources, the report said the maid was “traumatized” after fleeing Strauss-Kahn’s room.

During four separate interviews with supervisors and two hotel security officers, the maid reportedly gave consistent accounts of what allegedly took place.

The maid was visibly shaking and spitting as she described the events, according to the center’s story. The hotel security chief ultimately deemed her story credible and called police at 1:30 p.m.

Hours later, Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an Air France plane moments before its scheduled departure to Paris.

Confident of acquittal

The lead attorney for Strauss-Kahn, however, expressed confidence that his client would be cleared of the charges leveled against him by the chambermaid, reportedly an immigrant from Africa and a Muslim widow.

“He’ll plead not guilty and in the end he’ll be acquitted,” lawyer Benjamin Brafman, who handled the child sex case against the late Michael Jackson, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“Nothing is certain, but from what I’ve discerned in the investigation, he will be acquitted. He has impressed me very much. Despite the circumstances, he’s doing well,” Brafman added.

The defense lawyer also told France’s TF1 television that he was confident that “the charges will be proved false” and that he was working to restore Strauss-Kahn’s “very good name.”

Powerful team

Strauss-Kahn, who is hugely wealthy through his heiress wife, has hired a powerful team of private investigators for his defense.

Defense lawyers have so far given little indication of their strategy against the maid’s claims. But there have been hints that the lawyers will say a consensual sexual encounter took place.

In France, Interior Minister Claude Gueant told local radio on Sunday that if Strauss-Kahn were found guilty and asked to come to France to serve out a prison term there, “the French government would support his request.”

Gueant said the sex crime accusations had damaged France’s image abroad.

Feminists protest

At the same time, however, some 500 people turned out on Sunday in Paris for a protest by feminist groups against a wave of sexist commentary generated by Strauss-Kahn’s arrest.

Strauss-Kahn’s supporters in France have taken to the airwaves, blogs and newspaper columns to defend him, attack the US justice system and, in some cases, question the integrity of the alleged victim.

“The problem is not what happened in New York, but the tide of sexism that followed it,” declared Caroline Haas, president of Dare Feminism and one of the event organizers.

“We are all chambermaids,” declared one of the banners unfurled in front of the iconic Pompidou Center gallery complex. “No means no!” Reports from AFP and AP