About a week ago, Rami Adwan, the Lebanese ambassador to France, returned to Beirut following the completion of the mission of the investigative committee tasked by the caretaker Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with collecting information about this case.
The French judiciary was supposed to be handling the investigation with Adwan, as the legal proceedings were initiated in the French court due to the alleged crimes committed on French soil.
It is widely known that the caretaker Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to strip Adwan of his diplomatic immunity, which might have protected him from any French prosecution. Instead, the Ministry tasked a committee with gathering information and listening to testimonies from France and present them in Lebanon.
Over the course of several days, this investigative committee diligently fulfilled its mission by listening to testimonies from employees at the Lebanese embassy in France. They also collected information about the two employees who leveled accusations of rape and violence against Adwan.
It appears that the committee has acquired substantial evidence to refer Adwan to the Lebanese judiciary for further interrogation and possibly hold him accountable for his actions.
On June 22, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred Adwan’s case to the Lebanese judiciary, as per Al Modon newspaper. Adwan will be questioned regarding the charges attributed to him, as the judiciary will conduct thorough investigations to verify the information provided by the employees in France, who have accused Adwan of being a “rapist and abuser.”
In an interview with Al Modon, Waleed Haider, the Director-General of the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, affirmed that the ministry’s responsibility in following up on Adwan’s case has come to an end, and the next course of action will be undertaken by the Lebanese judiciary.
According to Al Modon, the Lebanese judiciary is expected to schedule an interrogation session with Adwan in the coming days.
This infers that the Lebanese judiciary will have the final say in determining whether or not the rape case is proven against Adwan and he should be held accountable, or whether the case involves defamation and reputation damage. The options are open, and only extensive investigations will be able to reveal the truth.
While it may take a few weeks for the Lebanese judiciary to reach a verdict and confirm or deny the charges against Adwan, the decision to refer him to the Lebanese judiciary indicates the depth of the information and testimonies obtained by the investigative committee in France.
