Strauss-Kahn, wife take in the symphony: report (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, battling attempted rape charges in New York, has attended two Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Tanglewood Music Festival, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The first concert was a recital by Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider on Thursday at Tanglewood, a famed estate that hosts one of the world's premier music festivals every summer in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and located 150 miles (225 kilometers) from Manhattan.

On Friday Strauss-Kahn was back at the venue, the Boston Symphony's summer home, for a concert with conductor Kurt Masur and cellist Lynn Harrell, the paper reported.

Strauss-Kahn had orchestra seats with his wife, the former French television journalist Anne Sinclair, who celebrated her 63rd birthday on Friday.

The pair apparently declined to talk to reporters.

The Times published a photograph of the two seated at the venue that showed Strauss-Kahn with a blue sweater casually draped over his shoulders, and Sinclair wearing a white blouse.

Earlier this month Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest, and the travel restrictions that confined him to a townhouse in New York were lifted, after US prosecutors raised concerns about the credibility of the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

But the charges made by the Guinean woman have not been dismissed, and Strauss-Kahn is due back in court on August 1.

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Strauss-Kahn pleads not guilty to sex crimes (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Fallen IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Monday pleaded not guilty to attempted rape, setting up a fierce New York courtroom showdown with his accuser.

Asked how he pleaded to seven counts of sex crimes, the former head of the world lender, once a top contender for president of France, stood before Judge Michael Obus and more than 100 journalists to say: "Not guilty."

Strauss-Kahn, 62, then left with his wife and two burly bodyguards assigned to enforce his house arrest.

Outside the New York State Supreme Court, a lawyer for the Sofitel hotel maid accusing Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her said she would take the stand during the trial.

From the courthouse steps he told a huge crowd of journalists that the alleged rape in Strauss-Kahn's Sofitel luxury suite May 14 had left her "traumatized."

"She's going to come to the courthouse, she's going to tell the truth. What she wants is justice," lawyer Kenneth Thompson told reporters.

"The victim wants you to know that all of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's power, money, and influence throughout the world will not keep the truth about what he did to her in that hotel room from coming out."

A group of maids arrived by bus to demonstrate at the court, booing Strauss-Kahn as he arrived and chanting "Shame on you!" Their cries were audible from the 13th floor courtroom where his seven minute arraignment hearing unfolded.

The next court hearing was set for July 18 and a trial could be months away. While the maid is set to be the main prosecution witness, Strauss-Kahn can choose not to testify.

Defense lawyers led by high-profile attorney Benjamin Brafman are strongly indicating they will not challenge the assertion that a sexual encounter took place.

This could be in recognition of apparently strong physical evidence collected by police, including, according to leaked reports, semen on the maid's shirt.

Instead, Brafman could argue that sex was consensual and that prosecutors cannot prove force was used.

"It will be clear that there was no element of forcible compulsion in this case whatsoever. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not credible," Brafman told reporters outside the court building Monday.

Thompson said any suggestion that his client was a willing partner was a "smear campaign." However, "she is standing up for her dignity," he said.

The defendant was one of the most influential people in the global economy and widely considered to be a leading contender for the French presidency until his shock arrest on an Air France plane about to depart New York for Paris.

After a humiliating week in police detention and in the city's Rikers Island jail, Strauss-Kahn was released on house arrest after securing a $6 million bond and bail deal.

The bail allows him to leave the house only to visit his lawyers, pray once a week or go to court. He lives under armed guard and wears an ankle monitoring bracelet, although visits from family and a few friends are permitted.

His arrest and quick resignation from his post as head of the International Monetary Fund threw the global lender and economic policy powerhouse into disarray as it grapples with debt crises in the European Union.

It also caused dismay in France. Many there still believe the Socialist party figure has been mistreated, but the case has also stirred unusually vigorous debate in the country over long-taboo subjects such as sexual harassment.

Strauss-Kahn, whose wife is an American-born art heiress and famous former French television journalist, is spending vast sums on his defense. Just the bill for his home detention costs some $200,000 a month, according to prosecutors, while rental for his TriBeCa townhouse is estimated at $50,000 a month.

In addition to Brafman, Strauss-Kahn is employing private investigators believed to be digging into the personal life of the maid. Lawyers claim to have information that could "gravely undermine" her position, but they have not given more detail.

The prosecution is also led by big guns Joan Illuzzi-Orbon and Ann Prunty. Illuzzi-Orbon is head of the Manhattan District Attorney's hate crimes unit.

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Strauss-Kahn furniture arrives at house arrest (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Movers delivered comfy chairs, paintings and clothing boxes Wednesday to the New York residence where Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under house arrest pending trial on sex assault charges.

A truck from JK Moving and Storage pulled up outside the luxury house in southern Manhattan and movers carried in a sofa, arm chairs, a large carpet, two paintings and dozens of clothing containers. Another box was inscribed "Apple computer."

The truck's license plates were registered in Virginia, a state bordering Washington, DC, where Strauss-Kahn owns a house he used while leading the International Monetary Fund.

Strauss-Kahn is free on $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond, with strict house arrest. His next court appearance is Monday, when he is expected to plead not guilty to charges that he tried to rape a maid in a Sofitel hotel room on May 14.

With a trial start probably months away he is expected to remain holed up in the rented Manhattan house for a significant period of time.

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Strauss-Kahn wife Anne Sinclair stands by her man (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) – Anne Sinclair, the wealthy and popular journalist married to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has so far chosen to stand by her man, even though the IMF chief faces charges of attempted rape.

The prize-winning, blue-eyed television interviewer first met Strauss-Kahn in 1989 at the apex of her career as a political talk-show host on French channel TFI. For years her celebrity largely eclipsed his.

She became his third wife in 1996. He is her second husband.

People who know them say they are an affectionate couple who have an easy relationship and like to vacation together with friends in their holiday home in the Moroccan town of Marrakesh.

Sinclair sacrificed her career to his, giving up her popular prime-time Sunday show -- which featured guests from President Bill Clinton to Madonna and every major French political leader -- when her husband was appointed finance minister in 1997.

Many on the center-left saw her as an ideal "first lady" if, as expected, Strauss-Kahn sought the Socialist nomination for the 2012 presidential election.

Such dreams were dashed when the managing-director of the International Monetary Fund was arrested Saturday on an Air France plane after a maid in a luxury New York hotel accused him of sexual assault. He has denied the charges.

Sinclair, who had been visiting friends in Paris, jumped to his defense immediately, saying in a statement issued on Sunday: "I do not believe for a single second the accusations leveled against my husband."

She flew to New York, arriving just too late to see him appear in a Manhattan court, where a judge denied him bail and ordered him detained in the grim Rikers Island prison until another hearing Friday.

She has not been seen in public since then.

The couple, who have two elegant homes in Paris as well as the riad in Marrakesh, and a network of well-heeled, powerful friends, are often criticized as belonging to "the caviar Left" -- espousing Socialist principles but with wealthy lifestyles remote working-class reality.

The relationship has faced challenges in the past, especially when Strauss-Kahn, a self-professed ladies' man, admitted having an affair with an IMF employee in 2008.

Sinclair brushed it off as a one-night stand and wrote then on her blog: "We love each other like the very first day."

Even as the current drama unfolds in New York, a French writer is considering filing a legal complaint over an alleged sexual incident involving Strauss-Kahn in 2002 when she was 22.

"She (Sinclair) seems to live in denial," said one long-time Strauss-Kahn acquaintance, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Born in New York in 1948, Sinclair is the grand-daughter of Paul Rosenberg, one of the most prominent art merchants of the 20th century, and daughter of Robert Schwartz, a Jewish resistance fighter during World War II.

The newspaper Liberation quoted Strauss-Kahn as saying that her fortune "has ensured I will never have to want for the rest of my life."

(Additional reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Alexandria Sage and Paul Taylor)

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