Plea entered
June 6, 2011
The former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of sexually assaulting a chamber maid.
Asked by the clerk at New York Supreme Court what plea he would enter, Strauss-Kahn replied "not guilty."
Strauss-Kahn was accompanied at the court by his wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair.
His next court appearance is set for July 18.
Arrest on board an aircraft
Police arrested Strauss-Kahn on board an Air France plane minutes before it was set to depart from New York on a flight bound for Paris on May 14. He is accused of attempting to force a 32-year-old African immigrant to have sex with him in his suite at a luxury hotel in downtown Manhattan a few hours earlier.
Strauss-Kahn spent four day in a New York jail before being released on $1 million bail and a $5 million bond. He is currently living in a Manhattan townhouse under house arrest.
Political ambitions dashed
The allegations forced Strauss-Kahn to step down as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and ended his aspirations to run as the Socialist candidate in the French presidential election in 2012.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and the head of Mexico's central bank, Agustin Carstens, are both seeking to replace Strauss-Kahn at the helm of the IMF.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, faces up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted on a series of charges, including attempted rape, sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment.
Author: Chuck Penfold (Reuters, APE, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton