Pressure rises against IMF chief held at notorious NYC jail on attempted rape ... - Washington Post

In asking that he be kept behind bars on charges he tried to rape a hotel maid, prosecutors had warned that the wealthy banker might flee to France and put himself beyond the reach of U.S. law, like the filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Defense lawyers have insisted there was no force involved and predicted Strauss-Kahn would be vindicated. Still, his arrest and detention have sent shock waves through the financial world, as well as French politics and culture.

Austria's finance minister suggested Tuesday that Strauss-Kahn consider stepping down to avoid damaging the IMF, which provides emergency loans to countries in severe distress and tries to maintain global financial stability.

"Considering the situation, that bail was denied, he has to figure out for himself that he is hurting the institution," Maria Fekter said as she arrived at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.

Elena Salgado, Fekter's Spanish counterpart, said Strauss-Kahn has to decide for himself whether he wants to step down, considering the "extraordinarily serious" charges.

"If I had to show my solidarity and support for someone, it would be toward the woman who has been assaulted, if that is really the case that she has been," she said.

Strauss-Kahn, a member of France's Socialist party, was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Defenders of Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister, said they suspected a smear campaign or a set-up. Others expressed sympathy.

"I didn't like the pictures I've seen on television," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said Monday night, referring to footage of Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs being escorted by police outside a New York precinct house.

Showing a suspect in handcuffs is illegal in France since a 2000 law aimed at the preserving the presumption of innocence.

"K.O." screamed banner headlines in France's Le Parisien and Liberation papers, with full-page photos of an unshaven Strauss-Kahn in the New York courtroom where he was ordered held without bail Monday.

Strauss-Kahn's situation could translate to political leverage for Sarkozy, who is likely to get a populist boost from reports in a German newspaper, quoting the president's father, that Sarkozy's wife is pregnant.

Financial and world leaders are already speculating on who would succeed Strauss-Kahn at the IMF.

A final choice would largely hinge on whether the U.S. and the European Union continue to split the jobs of the two Washington-based sister organizations — the IMF and the World Bank. Since World War II, a European has headed the Fund, while the U.S. has grabbed the top job at the World Bank.