Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the embattled managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF), resigned saying he wanted to devote “all his energy” to battle the sexual assault charges he faces in New York.
The IMF’s executive board released a letter from the French executive Wednesday in which he denied the allegations lodged against him but said that with “sadness” he felt he must resign. He said that he was thinking of his family and that he wanted to protect the IMF, The Associated Press reported.
“I want 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,” he said.
His short statement paid tribute to his American-born wife, journalist Anne Sinclair, who he said he loved more than anything, and spoke of his misery at being compelled to leave a job to which he had also been devoted.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a leading French politician, is currently in jail awaiting a grand jury decision on whether to indict him on charges of the alleged sexual assault and attempted rape of a 32-year-old Manhattan hotel chambermaid.
His lawyers were expected to tout his wife’s American credentials before a judge later Thursday in a fresh bid to free him from the tough Rikers Island jail, where he was spending his third night in isolation on suicide watch.
News of the sweetened bail offer broke just hours after the 32-year-old hotel maid, an immigrant from Guinea in West Africa, laid out the sexual assault allegations against him in front of a grand jury.
The new bail application argues that Mr. Strauss-Kahn should not be considered a flight risk because he has strong links to the United States through property and family.
As evidence of the strong US ties, the application mentions a $4 million home in Washington, DC, a daughter in New York, and even says Sinclair is “currently working on a book about American political life.”
In addition to the $1 million Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers said he can post for bail, they said he is willing to be confined to a Manhattan apartment 24 hours a day, with electronic monitoring, until the case is resolved.
“These additional bail conditions eliminate any concern that Mr Strauss-Kahn would or could leave this court’s jurisdiction," attorney Shawn Naunton wrote.
62-year-old Mr. Strauss-Kahn swore in the document to waive all rights to extradition, although France has no extradition treaty with the United States and the IMF says he has no diplomatic immunity in this case.
The chambermaid, who has accused one of the world’s most powerful men of trying to rape her on Saturday in his luxury hotel suite, earlier went before the grand jury that must decide if there is enough evidence to go to trial.
The single mother of a 15-year-old daughter alleges that Mr. Strauss-Kahn groped and mauled her in his room in the plush Sofitel hotel in Times Square, and forcibly tried to have oral sex with her.
Her lawyer, Jeff Shapiro, refused to comment on the closed-door grand jury proceedings but hit back at claims his client was part of an elaborate set-up intended to bring down the leading French politician and now former IMF chief.
Mr. Shapiro also shot down the idea that his client had consented to a sexual encounter and suggested forensic evidence would back her up.
"There’s been a lot of things stated out here of conspiracy theories and various other things, and they are not true,” Mr. Shapiro told CNN.
“The most important thing is for her to be vindicated. She has no other agenda other than to tell the truth and to be able to live her life the way she did before this event took place.”
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, tipped before the scandal broke as a strong possible candidate for the French presidency, has denied all seven counts of alleged sexual assault and attempted rape, as well as unlawful imprisonment.
But he was refused bail on Monday by a judge and is desperate to leave Rikers Island jail, where he has been made to wear slip-on shoes with no laces and a special grey jumpsuit.
US media reports said New York police had gathered evidence from the hotel suite, including bodily fluids taken from a spot where the maid remembered spitting out during Saturday’s attack and which were now being tested for DNA.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s top lawyer Benjamin Brafman told the bail hearing on Monday that the evidence “will not be consistent with a forcible encounter,” and New York media reports quoted a source close to the defense as saying “there may well have been consent.”
The scandal has thrown the French political scene into disarray, as Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been seen as a strong contender to defeat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s elections.
It also comes at a critical time for the IMF, amid delicate negotiations to help overcome the eurozone debt crisis.
“The Fund will communicate in the near future on the Executive Board's process of selecting a new Managing Director. Meanwhile, Mr. John Lipsky remains Acting Managing Director,” the IMF said, according to AFP.
Europe is aggressively staking its traditional claim to the top position. But fast-growing nations such as China, Brazil and South Africa are trying to break Europe’s grip on an organization empowered to direct billions of dollars to stabilize the global economy.
Europeans have led the IMF since its inception after World War II. Americans have occupied both the No. 2 position at the IMF and the top post at its sister institution, the World Bank. The World Bank funds projects in developing countries.
President Jose Manuel Barroso of the European Commission said Europe would naturally put forward a candidate to replace Strauss-Kahn if he were to step down, according to Reuters.
French officials said John Lipsky, the IMF's American number two official whose term ends in August, would represent the Fund at next week's Group of Eight summit in France.
Germany, which wants a European to keep the job, said the IMF should deal with its immediate leadership internally and that it is too early to discuss a successor to Mr. Strauss-Kahn.
Europe has “an abundance of highly qualified candidates” to lead the IMF, German government spokesman Christoph Steegmans declared Wednesday. He also noted the relevance of having a European at the helm, to deal with the debt problems that have racked the eurozone, according to AP.
Mr. Steegmans didn’t name any potential candidates or say whether Germany might propose one. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with the finance ministers of Sweden and the Netherlands, have pressed Europe’s case for the IMF leadership.
China suggested it was time to shake things up at the IMF, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying the leadership “should be based on fairness, transparency and merit.”
And South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan spoke in stronger terms. He said the new director should come from an emerging economy, to “bring a new perspective that will ensure that the interests of all countries, both developed and developing, are fully reflected in the operations and policies of the IMF.”
The United States has a major say in determining who will head the fund, in part because it holds the largest number of votes. The prevailing view among analysts and former Treasury officials appears to be that Washington would back a strong European candidate who could be approved in a smooth process.
One such candidate would be French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.
Other Europeans touted as possibilities are Germany’s former central bank chief Axel Weber; the head of Europe’s bailout fund, Klaus Regling; and Peer Steinbrueck, a former German finance minister.
Candidates from elsewhere include Turkey’s former finance minister, Kemal Dervis; Singapore’s finance chief Tharman Shanmugaratnam; and Indian economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
More possibilities include Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s former finance minister; Mexico’s central bank governor, Agustin Carstens; and former Brazilian central bank president Arminio Fraga.
(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arbiya,
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