Strauss-Kahn posts bail but release from jail is delayed

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have posted $1 million bail and a $5 million insurance bond to secure his release from New York’s Rikers Island jail on Friday, but the former IMF chief’s planned liberation hit a hurdle after the upscale Bristol Plaza refused to rent him an apartment.

The Bristol Plaza hotel, located in the wealthy Upper East Side of New York, has refused to allow Dominique Strauss-Kahn to stay in the apartment where his wife, Anne Sinclair, has been residing since Monday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's lawyer sets out bail conditions By FRANCE 24

Strauss-Kahn was officially indicted by a grand jury Thursday on allegations of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape an employee at the luxury Sofitel hotel, and ordered by a judge to post bail of $1 million cash and a $5 million insurance bond. Once freed, Strauss-Kahn will be placed under 24-hour house arrest, where his every move will be electronically monitored.

The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund was expected to leave the notorious Rikers Island jail Friday and move into the apartment with his wife, who is paying $13,000 per month for the lodgings. But after citing “difficulties in finding an apartment”, one of his lawyers told FRANCE 24 correspondent Emmanuel Saint-Martin in New York that the hotel had refused to allow Strauss-Kahn to stay. Without a fixed address, Strauss-Kahn is unable to leave custody.

“This same thing happened to [disgraced financier] Bernard Madoff two years ago”, Saint-Martin explained. “Again, the neighbours don’t want the media circus turning up on their doorstep, so the hotel owner made the decision to refuse him”.

As Saint-Martin pointed out, the immediate situation for Strauss-Kahn is very uncertain.

“The question now, is whether the judge will allow a temporary solution”, he said.

If not, Strauss-Kahn could be spending at least another night in jail.