The Director General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested Saturday at JFK Airport in New York before his departure for France and placed in custody for an alleged sexual assault at a hotel in the city.
Mr.Strauss-Kahn, known as "DSK", was unloaded from an Air France flight to Paris just minutes before takeoff, officials said.
By late evening Saturday, French official was in a police station in Harlem in New York pending a formal indictment, according to police sources.
"We have placed in custody and delivered to the New York Police Department (NYPD), told AFP on condition of anonymity, an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. "We did it at the request of the NYPD," the source said.
Strauss-Kahn "was placed in custody. He is asked about an alleged sexual assault.He was not charged, "he told AFP by telephone on NYPD spokesman Michael Debon.
According to police sources, Mr Strauss-Kahn would have hurriedly left the Sofitel Hotel where he was staying, leaving his mobile phone and personal belongings. A housekeeper told police she was assaulted by the Director of the IMF as he left naked in his shower.
Earlier, the New York Times announced the arrest of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, former finance minister and a leading French political figures, likely candidate for the Socialist Party's primary for the presidential election of 2012.
"Mr.Strauss-Kahn has been unloaded from an Air France flight by officials of the Ports Authority of New York and New Jersey and delivered to investigators in Manhattan, "writes the New York Times, quoting a spokesman of the Authority.
"He is accused of sexually assaulting an employee of a hotel in Times Square in New York earlier in the day" on Saturday, the source said.
An IMF spokesman in Washington made no immediate comment.
Contacted by AFP in the early evening, the lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn in Washington, William Taylor, was unaware of the case.Contacted later, he said he had never managed to reach his client.
The New York Times, "It was 4:45 p.m. when undercover investigators from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have suddenly taken on board of Air France Flight 23 (...) and took Mr. Strauss-Kahn in custody, "said John Kelly, spokesman for the Authority.
"It happened 10 minutes before scheduled flight departure," the spokesman quoted by the newspaper.
Officials of the Authority acted on the basis of information from the New York Police investigating "a brutal assault of an employee of the Sofitel New York, located at 45 West 44th Street, according to the same source.
Mr.Strauss-Kahn had planned a visit in Berlin on Sunday and should be received by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It should normally attend Monday at a meeting of finance ministers from the euro area in Brussels, then a speech Wednesday at the 12th Economic Forum in Brussels, an event organized by the European Commission.
Mr.Strauss-Kahn was appointed in September 2007 to head the IMF for a fundamental reform that institution.
In 2008, the IMF had ordered an investigation of its director after an extramarital affair between the former Minister of Finance, 62, and a former head of the Africa Department, Ms Piroska Nagy.
The investigation established that she had received no special treatment, and that "there was no harassment or favoritism or any other abuse of authority."
But then the IMF had criticized a "serious misjudgment" in a case that had made the front of the world press.
Economist acknowledged his candidacy for the French presidential election in 2012 to wear the colors socialists is acclaimed in the polls.
Socialist nomination in 2006, it was widely anticipated by Ségolène Royal, finally beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy, who then supported his candidacy for the IMF.
