Ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn granted bail

Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus said that Mr Strauss-Kahn, 62, can be released on $1 million (£620,000) cash bail, and placed under 24-hour home detention with electronic monitoring.

The judge also said Mr Strauss-Kahn must have one armed guard at all times at his own expense and have a $5 million (£3m) insurance bond.

His wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair, and his daughter Camille Strauss-Kahn had arrived at the court arm in arm.

Rikers Island jail

Mr Strauss-Kahn, a man accustomed to luxury hotel suites and first-class plane travel, had been denied bail in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday and has spent the past three nights in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail, where he was on suicide watch.

The former International Monetary Fund Managing Director faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted and faces a number of charges over the alleged sexual assault of the woman: committing a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, and forcible touching.

He was arrested in New York at the weekend over the charges, and resigned as head of the IMF on Thursday.

In his resignation statement, he wrote: “I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.”