Pressure is building on Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund, with the US treasury chief and European finance ministers questioning if he can carry on in the light of his arrest.
In a speech in New York on Tuesday, Tim Geithner, the US treasury secretary, said Strauss-Khan was "obviously not in a position to run the IMF". He said: "I think it's important that the board of the IMF formally put in place for an interim period somebody to act as managing director."
Geithner's comments came after Austria's finance minister, Maria Fekter, and others, said Strauss-Kahn was damaging the IMF: "Considering the situation, that bail was denied, he has to figure out for himself, that he is hurting the institution," she told journalists at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.
Strauss-Kahn is being held in isolation at the notorious Rikers Island in New York, having been refused bail after denying charges of a sexual assault on a 32-year-old chambermaid. His lawyers are expected to reapply for bail on Friday; one New York tabloid reported they might be preparing to argue sexual contact was consensual.
A grand jury is meeting in private to decide whether evidence is strong enough for a case to proceed over the alleged attack in a luxury Manhattan hotel suite. Jurors will announce their decision on Friday. » | Dominic Rushe in New York and Angelique Chrisafis in Paris | Wednesday, May 18, 2011
