NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will plead not guilty on Monday to charges he sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid in a case that cost him his job and a chance at the French presidency.
Wearing a dark suit, Strauss-Kahn arrived at the courthouse with his wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair, walking beside him, arm-in-arm.
The couple walked past a throng of media and a large group of hotel workers there in solidarity with the woman who said Strauss-Kahn attacked her. "Shame on you," they chanted.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on charges including attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.
At what is expected to be a brief court hearing, the former head of the International Monetary Fund would plead not guilty in New York Supreme Court before Judge Michael Obus, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman told Reuters.
Praised for his role tackling the 2007-09 global financial crisis and attempts to keep Europe's debt crisis under control, Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF managing director a few days after his May 14 arrest in the first-class section of an Air France plane, minutes before it was to depart New York for Paris.
He was accused of attacking a 32-year-old African immigrant a few hours earlier when she came to clean his suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel in Midtown Manhattan, apparently believing it had been vacated.
Strauss-Kahn, who has four daughters, denies the charges. Monday's arraignment marks the start of what could be lengthy legal proceedings
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