DUSHANBE, May 16, 2011 Asia-Plus -- IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged on Sunday with trying to rape a New York hotel maid in a scandal that appeared to wreck his hopes of becoming France''s next president, Reuters reports.

A handcuffed and drained Strauss-Kahn reportedly appeared before reporters for the first time on Sunday night when two police detectives escorted him from a police station to a gray, four-door sedan.  Police said he would be taken to the booking station at Manhattan Criminal Court.

The sexual assault charges throw the IMF into turmoil just as it is trying to ease an escalating euro zone debt crisis, and they turn France''s presidential election campaign upside down when polls had made Strauss-Kahn a clear front runner.

The charismatic 62-year-old, who led the International Monetary Fund through the 2007-09 global financial meltdown and has been central in galvanizing Europe to tackle its debt woes, for long had the reputation of a womanizer.  But the charges he faces are in another realm.

A maid, 32, said he emerged naked from the bathroom and sexually assaulted her inside his $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel near New York''s Times Square on Saturday afternoon.

He would plead not guilty, his lawyers said.

Strauss-Kahn''s first court appearance before a state judge had been expected on Sunday night but was delayed after investigators asked a judge for a warrant to search his body for scratches, a police spokesman said.

The defendant agreed to a medical examination voluntarily, one of his defense lawyers said.  It was unclear where or when the exam would take place.

Police say he fled the hotel after the alleged assault and a few hours later they pulled him from his first-class seat on an Air France plane minutes before it was to take off for Paris.

Strauss-Kahn was charged with a criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape, moving him from luxurious hotel suite and a glittering public career to scandal and a bare holding cell in New York''s tough Harlem neighborhood in the space of a few hours.

While he was locked up in Harlem on Sunday, the woman identified him from a police lineup that included five other men, a police spokesman said.

Police say Strauss-Kahn does not have diplomatic immunity from the charges, which if proven could carry a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.  They have collected DNA evidence from the hotel suite, The New York Times reported.

The IMF said Strauss-Kahn had been in New York on private business.  He has hired New York lawyer Benjamin Brafman, a seasoned defense attorney who has successfully represented several celebrities, to lead his defense team.

With Strauss-Kahn in the dock, the IMF also now faces many questions of its own, because his character had been questioned before.  In 2008, Strauss-Kahn apologized for "an error of judgment" after an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subordinate.

The Fund''s board of member countries warned him against further improper conduct, but cleared him of harassment and abuse of power and kept him in his job.  It will now face new scrutiny over whether that response was too weak, especially as there have been persistent rumors about Strauss-Kahn making sexual advances to women.

The maid who accused Strauss-Kahn told police he attacked her when she went in to clean his suite.  The woman, who has not been named, was treated in hospital for minor injuries.  She has worked at the hotel for three years and the property''s manager said on Sunday she has been a "completely satisfactory" employee in her work and her behavior.

Under New York state law, attempted rape and a criminal sexual act both carry a potential sentence of 15 to 20 years.  Unlawful imprisonment carries a potential sentence of three to five years.