Egyptian businessman Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar being held on $25K bail

GlobalPost
The World

An Egyptian businessman, Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, is being held on $25,000 bail after being charged with sexually abusing a housekeeper at a luxury New York hotel, the Associated Press reports.

A judge arraigned Omar late Tuesday night in Manhattan on two counts of sexual abuse and forcible touching. The judge set bail at $25,000 cash or a $50,000 bond and ordered his travel documents be surrendered.

Omar is expected to post bail Wednesday.

The businessman, who is the former chairman of a major Egyptian bank, is accused of attacking a 44-year-old housekeeper at the Pierre hotel on the Upper East Side after she brought him a box of tissues.

Omar denies the charges, his lawyer told the court Tuesday.

The supervisor of the housekeeper has been suspended by the Pierre hotel after she failed to report the incident and delayed the police investigation for 15 hours, the New York Times reports.

The case comes in the wake of allegations that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape a maid at a different luxury hotel in New York two weeks ago. Strauss-Kahn is under house arrest in the city and awaits trial.

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