French aghast at treatment of IMF chief

Some of the charges leveled against Strauss-Kahn in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York do not exist in France. And if the case was being heard in France, the 62-year-old IMF chief might risk three to five years in prison instead of 20 years or more in the United States, a leading specialist says. He also probably would not be sitting in a cell on Rikers Island on a suicide watch.

Yesterday, lawyers for Strauss-Kahn made a second appeal for bail and proposed he be confined to his daughter’s Manhattan home 24 hours a day with electronic monitoring. He was set for another hearing this afternoon.

The French politician said in court papers that he had surrendered his passport and would not flee the country.

“I do not intend to leave the United States of America without the permission of the New York Court,’’ he said.

In court papers filed yesterday, Strauss-Kahn’s attorneys proposed posting $1 million cash bail and confining him to the home of his daughter, Camille, 24 hours a day with electronic monitoring.

Strauss-Kahn “is a loving husband and father, and a highly regarded diplomat, politician, lawyer, politician, economist, and professor, with no criminal record,’’ his lawyers said.

The lawyers had proposed similar conditions at an earlier bail hearing but added the promise of home detention yesterday.

Some in the United States have expressed surprise that French media have identified the alleged victim by name, nearly unthinkable in US journalistic circles, which avoid publishing a victim’s name in suspected sex crimes.

The photos of a potential French president — handcuffed, stooped, unshaven, and tieless — seemed to knock the breath out of the French public. The initial response was a collective, “That would not happen here.’’

Not in a country whose laws protect even a petty thief from flashing cameras in a public space and televised court hearings like the one broadcast Monday from Manhattan Criminal Court. Not in a country whose traditions have long shielded the philandering of the powerful, at the risk of failing to uncover travesties of the law.