After fleeing Guinea, Dominique Strauss-Kahn maid now finds life upended

The hotel maid who accused the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, of sexually assaulting her has had her life upended by the incident and subsequent worldwide attention, her lawyer told reporters in New York.

Her lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, told the Associated Press that the woman is an honest woman with no agenda, and she had no idea who the man she was accusing was until a day or two after the incident.

The maid accuses Strauss-Kahn, now being called DSK on the web, of a naked ambush when she entered his $3,000-a-night suite at a New York luxury hotel Saturday.

Strauss-Kahn has since been charged with various crimes including attempted rape and, after being denied bail, is now being held at Rikers Island jail until at least Friday.

The accuser is reportedly a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea (see the BBC country profile) who received asylum in the United States seven years ago. She lives in the Bronx, raising her 15-year-old daughter alone after the father passed away.

Her lawyer said the incident has kept her from her life, work and even daughter.

"Her life has now been turned upside down. She can't go home. She can't go back to work. She has no idea what her future will be, what she will be able to do to support herself and her daughter. This has been nothing short of a cataclysmic event in her life," Shapiro told the Associated Press.

Lawyers for the IMF chief have challenged the maid's account of what happened, insisting their client is innocent and saying the evidence does not show forcible sex, the New York Times reports.

One lawyer for Strauss-Kahn, Benjamin Brafman, told a judge during a hearing Monday he believed the “forensic evidence” was “not consistent with forcible encounter," it states.

There is speculation Strauss-Kahn will insist that the sexual acts were consensual.

The accuser's lawyer insisted she was assaulted and then fled the scene to report the incident and get medical help.

A Grand Jury is expected to issue an indictment against Strauss-Kahn in criminal court this Friday.

Meanwhile, pressure on Strauss-Kahn is growing to resign from the IMF to prevent more damage to the institution.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the IMF needs to formally name an interim leader, and Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters in Brussels that Strauss-Kahn “risks damaging the IMF," Bloomberg reports.