May 16, 2011 12:00pm by David Farrar

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

The leader of the International Monetary Fund, a possible candidate for president of France, was pulled from an airplane moments before he was to fly to Paris and is being questioned by police in connection with the sexual assault of a hotel maid.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken off the Air France flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and turned over to police Saturday afternoon, said Paul J. Browne, New York Police Department spokesman.

He was being questioned by the NYPD special victims office. Strauss-Kahn had retained an attorney and was not making statements to the police, Browne said. No charges have yet been filed.

The 32-year-old woman told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn’s room at the Sofitel near Manhattan’s Times Square at about 1pm Eastern (1600 GMT) Saturday and he emerged from the bedroom naked, threw her down and attacked her, Browne said.

She told authorities that he tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. She somehow broke free and escaped the room and told hotel staff what had happened, authorities said. They called police.

This will be one of the trials of the decade, if the allegations are correct.

He was not just a possible candidate for President of France, but I would say the clear favourite to becomes the 34th President of the Republic.

Incidentially he was accused of attempted rape in 2002 by the then 23 year old Tristane Banon.