Strauss-Kahn is granted bail

Dominique Strauss-Kahn in court.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A New York Supreme Court judge granted bail Thursday to former International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been jailed on sexual abuse charges.

Judge Michael Obus granted the bail on the conditions that $1 million be posted in cash, that a bond for $5 million also be posted, that Strauss-Kahn surrender his travel documents and that he submit to home detention.

The announcement came shortly after the former IMF chief was indicted on seven criminal charges. They are: two counts of criminal sexual act, two counts of sexual abuse, and one count each of attempt to commit rape, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.

In a brief letter to the IMF executive board late Wednesday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn proclaimed his innocence, but resigned his IMF post.

He said he was stepping down to "protect this institution which I have served with honor and devotion, and especially -- especially -- I want to devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence."

"To all, I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me," he added.

The case has captured worldwide attention since Strauss-Kahn was pulled off an airplane last Saturday and charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of a 32-year-old Guinean maid in his hotel suite.

Crisis shoves IMF into real world

His arrest has set French political circles abuzz as the international economist was widely considered the French Socialist Party's best hope to unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's elections.

Calls for Strauss-Kahn's resignation mounted in recent days.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was "obviously not in a position to run the IMF."

Austria's finance minister Maria Fekter urged him to step down.

"He should think about whether he is damaging the institution," Fekter said.

In his letter, Strauss-Kahn said he felt compelled to resign.

"I think at this time first of my wife -- whom I love more than anything -- of my children, of my family, of my friends," he wrote.

"I think also of my colleagues at the Fund; together we have accomplished such great things over the last three years and more."

While the search begins to replace him, John Lipsky will continue as acting managing director, the IMF said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege that a naked Strauss-Kahn, 62, chased the housekeeping employee through his Manhattan hotel suite on Saturday and sexually assaulted her.

But his attorney Benjamin Brafman disputed the allegation, saying "forensic evidence, we believe, will not be consistent with a forcible account, and we believe there is a very, very defensible case."

The IMF chief faces an array of charges, including two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act, one count of first-degree attempted rape, one count of first-degree sexual abuse, one count of second-degree unlawful imprisonment, one count of forcible touching and one count of third-degree sexual abuse.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking the maid at about noon, shortly before he checked out of the Sofitel.

IMF acting director gets down to business

The maid, according to a law enforcement official, followed hotel policy by putting her cart in the open doorway of the suite when she went to clean it.

After lunch, he was driven to John F. Kennedy International Airport and boarded an Air France flight, authorities said.

As he sat in first class awaiting takeoff and a planned meeting the next day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, followed by a meeting with European finance ministers on Monday in Brussels, his world of luxury and power came crashing down.

Police, alerted by hotel staff to the maid's accusations, ordered him off the plane and placed him in custody.

Strauss-Kahn was examined for scratches and DNA samples were taken, and investigators searched for other evidence in the suite, including possible bodily fluids from both individuals, a law enforcement official told CNN.

He consented to the testing after investigators prepared a search warrant, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to release the information.