Ex-IMF chief arrives in New York court

NEW YORK—Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived at a New York courtroom Monday for a new hearing on charges of sexually assaulting a chambermaid last month.

The 62-year-old, once one of the most influential people in the global economy, is set to plead not guilty to trying to rape the woman in his luxury Manhattan hotel suite on May 14.

He is accused on seven counts, including attempted rape, in what prosecutors say was a brutal assault on a 32-year-old immigrant from West Africa.

AFP photographers saw him leaving his luxury rental house early Monday in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood with his wife, former French television journalist Anne Sinclair.

Shortly afterwards, he and Sinclair arrived at the courtroom, where at least 200 journalists, many of them from French media, were queuing to get in for the hearing.

He was met by a group of hotel maids protesting and shouting, “Shame on you!”