Inquiry team to visit Paris after envoy accused of rape

Lebanon’s foreign ministry has said it would send an investigation team to Paris following reports that Beirut’s ambassador to France, Rami Adwan, has been accused of rape and intentional violence.

The French investigation into Adwan followed complaints by two former embassy employees, sources close to the investigation had told Agence France-Presse, confirming an earlier media report. France has urged the Lebanese authorities to lift Adwan’s diplomatic immunity and allow him to go on trial.

The Lebanese foreign ministry has decided to “urgently send an investigation committee headed by the ministry’s secretary general … to the embassy in Paris to question the concerned ambassador and hear statements from embassy staff”, it said.

The first former employee, aged 31, filed her complaint in June 2022 for a rape she says was committed in May 2020 in the ambassador’s private flat, according to sources close to the investigation confirming a Mediapart report. According to the complaint, she had a relationship with the ambassador, who carried out “psychological and physical violence with daily humiliations”.

The second woman, aged 28, made a complaint last February following what she said was a series of physical attacks after she turned down sexual relations.

She claimed Adwan tried to hit her with his car after an argument on the sidelines of last year’s Normandy World Peace Forum.

Adwan’s lawyer Karim Beylouni has said that his client “contests all accusations of aggression in any shape or form: verbal, moral, sexual”.

He said Adwan had been involved in “romantic relationships” with the two women between 2018 and 2022 that were “punctuated by arguments and break-ups”.