(Beirut) Lebanon announced on Saturday 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 said on Friday, confirming information from the online media Mediapart.
“Given the seriousness of the facts mentioned, we consider it necessary for the Lebanese authorities to lift the immunity of the Lebanese ambassador in Paris in order to facilitate the work of French justice”, then reacted to AFP the French ministry. Foreign Affairs.
Lebanon will “urgently dispatch a commission of inquiry chaired by the secretary general of the ministry […] to the embassy in Paris to interview the ambassador concerned and collect testimony from embassy staff,” according to a statement from his foreign ministry.
This commission will also meet the French authorities “to clarify” the information communicated to the media and which was not transmitted to the Lebanese ministry “through diplomatic channels”, the press release adds.
The first woman, aged 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 humiliation”.
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 a refusal to have sex.
Rami Adwan’s lawyer, Mr.e Karim Beylouni, told AFP that his client “disputes 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.