Lebanon announced on Saturday June 3 the dispatch of a team of investigators to Paris after France requested the lifting of the diplomatic immunity of the Lebanese ambassador, under investigation for rape and intentional violence. The investigation was opened following the complaint of two former embassy employees against Ambassador Rami Adwan, sources familiar with the matter in Paris reported on Friday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). confirming information from online media Mediapart.
The Lebanese team will “interrogate the ambassador and collect testimonies from embassy staff,” according to a statement from its foreign ministry. This commission will also meet with the French authorities “to clarify” the information communicated to the media and which was not transmitted to the Lebanese ministry “through diplomatic channels”, the statement added.
“Love relationships riddled with arguments”
The first woman, 31, filed a complaint in June 2022 for a rape committed, according to her account to the police, in May 2020 in the private apartment of the ambassador, according to sources close to the investigation. She had a “romantic relationship” with the ambassador who exercised “psychological and physical violence on her with daily humiliations”. The second woman, aged 28, who had also established an intimate relationship with the diplomat, filed a complaint last February to denounce a series of physical attacks often committed after the refusal of a sexual relationship.
Rami Adwan’s lawyer, Mr. Karim Beylouni, told AFP that his client “contests any accusation of assault in any form whatsoever”. “He had with these two women between 2018 and 2022 romantic relationships enamelled with arguments and breakups,” he added.