Strauss-Kahn on suicide watch at NYC Jail

Dominique Strauss Kahn has been placed on suicide watch at his Rikers Island jail cell in New York City, according to a report.

Kahn is bein checked every 15 to 30 minutes and has been given a special prison jumpsuit and shoes that have no laces, NBC New York reported citing unidentified sources.

The source said Strauss-Kahn has not made statements about hurting himself, according to the report.

A medical official at the prison ordered the suicide watch as a precaution because of his mood and the nature of the case, according to the source.

A prison spokesperson said inmate health records are confidential under the law and would not comment specifically on Strauss-Kahn, according to the report.

The head of the International Monetary Fund and a leading contender for the French Presidency in 2012, has an alibi as his defense team prepares on Monday to show evidence that he did not sexually attack a hotel worker in New York on Saturday.

Strauss-Kahn has told investigators that he was with his daughter in a restaurant in New York at the time the attack reportedly took place, sources told RTL radio on Monday.

His defense preparing to provide evidence and testimony about the lunch.
Under the scenario, Strauss-Kahn would have left the hotel room ahead of the time he was said to have conducted the assault.

Kahn arrived at a New York courthouse on Monday morning where he is expected to be arraigned on charges of committing a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. Strauss-Kahn will plead not guilty, according to his lawyer.

On Sunday in Paris, the lawyer for a woman who says she was assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in 2002 said she wants to file a complaint, the Associated Press reported.

Attorney David Koubbi said Tristane Banon did not file a suit earlier due to pressures and was swayed not to do so by her own mother an official within the French socialist party.

It was unclear why Strauss-Kahn was in New York at the time of the alleged attack. The IMF - a multi-national organization which lends to countries in financial difficulties - is based in Washington D.C.

Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair said Sunday in a written statement she did not believe the charges.

I don't believe for a single second the accusations made against my husband. I don't doubt that his innocence will be established, she said.

John Lipsky the second-in-command at the IMF will assume Strauss-Kahn's functions as director general for however long is necessary, Le Figaro reported. The organization's board will meet Sunday evening.

The IMF remains fully functioning and operational, said Caroline Atkinson, Director of External Relations at the IMF. The IMF acknowledged the arrest and said it had no comment on the case.

On Saturday afternoon, Police officers in plain clothes belonging to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded an Air France plane Flight 23 at about 4:45 p.m. as it waited for takeoff and took him into custody.

Three police officers pulled Kahn from the plane's first-class cabin and turned him over to New York Police Department officers from the Midtown South precinct.
The incident is said to have taken place when a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel hotel on West 44th street, the Post reported.