No bail for Strauss-Kahn on sex charges

NEW YORK, May 16 (UPI) -- Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn was held without bail Monday on charges he sexually assaulted a New York hotel housekeeper.

In denying defense attorneys' request for bail, Judge Melissa Jackson said she believed Strauss-Kahn posed a flight risk, The New York Times reported.

His next court date is Friday.

Benjamin Brafman, one of Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, argued that "there is a very, very defensible case and he should be entitled to bail."

He said his client wasn't trying to flee when he was arrested on an Air France flight about to depart John F. Kennedy International Airport Saturday.

The complaint charges Strauss-Kahn, 62, with two counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment, sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching, ABC News reported.

The charges, filed by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, said that Strauss-Kahn forcibly touched the housekeeper's breasts, attempted to remove her panty hose, twice "forcibly made contact with his penis and the informant's mouth" and "engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion."

Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist who was considered the leading challenger to President Nicolas Sarkozy in France's next elections until the allegations, was replaced at the IMF helm by John Lipsky, the organization's first deputy managing director named Sunday as acting managing director.

The IMF head was arrested Saturday after the housekeeper went to police, alleging she was assaulted in Strauss-Kahn's luxury hotel suite.

Brafman said Sunday his client is innocent, tired and "intends to vigorously defend the charges."

William Taylor, another attorney representing Strauss-Kahn said his client's arraignment was delayed from Sunday after he agreed to forensic testing sought by police, CNN reported.

Prosecutors sought possible DNA evidence to support the assault allegations, The New York Times reported.

Officials of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government said Strauss-Kahn is presumed innocent and the matter must work through the legal and court systems.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said she was "totally stupefied" by the charges, the Times reported.

Strauss-Kahn's wife, U.S.-born French television journalist Anne Sinclair, expressed disbelief at the charges against him.

Sinclair said in a statement, "I don't believe for a second the accusations leveled against my husband."

Others, the Times said, suggested Strauss-Kahn may be the victim of a "setup."