United States has called for Dominique Strauss-Kahn's resignation as head of the IMF after his arrest for an alleged attempt to rape a New York hotel maid.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that Strauss-Kahn 'is obviously not in a position to run' the international lending agency as he is held in a high security prison where he is on suicide watch.
He said the IMF should formally choose an interim director such as John Lipsky, who has been running the organisation since Strauss-Khan's arrest.
Liberation, the left-wing daily newspaper, has published details on off-the-record comments made by Strauss-Kahn as recently as April 28th, in which he said he feared a plot. .
Discussing his plans to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy as Socialist candidate for the presidency in 2012, he said he imagined ‘a woman who had been raped in a car park and who was offered between 500 thousand and a million euros to make up such a story.’
Because he was the clear favourite to beat Mr Sarkozy, Strauss-Kahn feared he would be subjected to a smear campaign by the President and his Interior Minister, Glaude Gueant..
Strauss-Kahn’s alleged victim is a Guinean immigrant who works at Sofitel Hotel who claims that when she entered his suite to clean it he emerged naked from the bathroom and chased her.
She says Stauss-Kahn then dragged her into the bathroom and sexually assaulted her before she managed to break free and raise the alarm.
Strauss-Kahn, who faces 25 years in prison if convicted, was pulled off an Air France flight just minutes before it was due to take off for Paris on Saturday.
He was refused bail by a New York judge on Monday and sent to the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail after prosecutors argued he might flee to France.
They said they were also investigating other claims against him of sexual assault.
French author Tristane Banon, 31, has accused Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her a decade ago and is considering reporting him to the police in Paris.
Today’s poll published in the French media was carried out on Monday with a sample of 1007 people selected by the quota method.
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