IMF chief on sex charge is under suicide watch

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn remained in jail and under suicide watch yesterday as a lawyer for the hotel maid who accused the French politician of attempted rape sought to rebut allegations that her charges were "a setup".

The maid's lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, said he had no doubts his client, a single mother, was telling the truth about the alleged encounter on Saturday.

"She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice, and she's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful," Shapiro said. "What (Strauss-Kahn) might be able to get away with in some countries, he can't here in this country."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said that defence lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."

But Shapiro dismissed suggestions that the woman had made up the charges or tried to cover up a consensual encounter.

"This is nothing other than a physical, sexual assault by this man on this young woman," Shapiro said. He added that the woman didn't know who was staying in the 28th-floor suite she went to clean on Saturday afternoon, before she said she was attacked.

Strauss-Kahn was one of the most high-profile politicians in France and a potential candidate for president in next year's elections before the alleged incident.