IMF chief resigns, vows to prove innocence

but must focus entirely on clearing his name of sexual assault charges.
The move came after escalating pressure on the IMF to chart a course through the crisis and promised to kick off a succession battle between emerging economies and Western nations that have long dominated the world body.
“I want to protect this institution which I have served with honour and devotion, and especially – especially – I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence,” Strauss-Kahn said.
“I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.”
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 “infinite sadness” at being compelled to leave a job to which he had also been devoted.
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 yesterday 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 hotel maid, an immigrant from Guinea in West Africa, laid out the sexual assault allegations in front of a grand jury.
The new bail application argues that Strauss-Kahn should not be considered a flight risk because he has strong US ties through property and family.
The application mentions a US$4 million home in Washington, DC, a daughter in New York, and says Sinclair is “currently working on a book about American political life”.
In addition to the US$1 million 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.
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 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 man once seen as a leading presidential hopeful.
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,” Shapiro told CNN. – AFP.