IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing damaging allegations of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, has been put on suicide watch by prison authorities who fear he may try to kill himself.
Strauss-Kahn has been lodged at the Rikers Island Prison without bail since on Saturday after he was made to deboard a Paris-bound flight and arrested.
A source told NY Daily News that Strauss-Kahn Stut is on a so-called "101 Watch," correction department jargon for constant monitoring and suicide watch.
The source said that he was stripped off his Cartier watch and given a blue jailhouse smock to wear.
The high-profile prisoner is being checked regularly and has been made to wear shoes with no laces to pre-empt any suicide attempt.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been charged with a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment of the 32-year-old maid in his Sofitel hotel suite in Manhattan.
His defence team — Ben Brafman and William Taylor — have said their client is not guilty and he will fight the charges.
It also emerged that the accuser, the hotel maid, told her brother from the hospital, "Someone tried to do something very bad to me".