After Strauss-Kahn spent nearly a week in police custody and then jail, a judge agreed Thursday to free him on a 1 million dollar cash bail plus an additional 5 million dollar bond — provided he's confined to a New York apartment, under armed guard and electronic monitoring.
He wasn't immediately released from the city's bleak Rikers Island jail, where he had been kept in protective custody and on a suicide watch. But his lawyers expect he'll get out Friday, after he posts the bond and authorities review the security arrangements involved in his house arrest.
The 62-year-old French economist and diplomat briefly wore an expression of relief after state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus announced his decision in a packed courtroom. The ex-IMF head is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper Saturday in his a hotel suite.
The indictment, a crucial procedural step in a felony case, marked a grand jury's "determination that the evidence supports the commission of non-consensual, forced sexual acts," District Attorney Cyrus Vance said. Strauss-Kahn, whose lawyers have suggested evidence won't support a forcible encounter, is due back in court June 6.
The bail decision came less than a day after Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the IMF, the powerful organization that makes emergency loans to countries in financial crisis.
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