By Basil Katz and Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Handcuffed and haggard, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was escorted by detectives from a New York police station on Sunday night in his first public appearance since being accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.
Strauss-Kahn, the early favourite in France's presidential election, had his hands cuffed behind his back and a strained look on his face as two detectives led him to a waiting police sedan in front of a battery of television cameras.
He was due to make his first court appearance on Monday after submitting to a forensic medical exam with police looking for scratches or other evidence of his alleged assault on a New York hotel maid on Saturday afternoon.
The charges have blown the French election wide open and thrown the International Monetary Fund into turmoil.
A charismatic figure, Strauss-Kahn led the IMF through the 2007-09 global financial meltdown and has been central in galvanizing Europe to tackle its debt woes.
But he now faces charges of a criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape, and could face a humiliating end to his public career and presidential ambitions.
The euro slid to a six-week low against the dollar and a two-month trough against the Japanese yen when markets opened in Asia on Monday as the news of Strauss-Kahn's arrest added uncertainty to aid for Greece and other indebted euro zone countries.
Strauss-Kahn wore a black overcoat, blue dress shirt and black dress slacks on Sunday night, his hair neatly parted. He kept his eyes straight ahead, avoiding looking at the cameras.
"Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination tonight," said William Taylor, the IMF chief's Washington-based lawyer. "He's tired but he's fine."
Police would not say where and when Straus-Ka
