Story highlights
NEW: Prosecutors say a complaint of sexual assault was filed Monday
French Foreign Ministry declines to name envoy or country involved
Bahrain's ambassador "forcefully" denies assaulting the former employee
The ministry raises the possibility the envoy's wife and son may be implicated
Bahrain’s ambassador to France has been accused of sexually assaulting a former employee and is under investigation by prosecutors, authorities in France said Thursday.
A formal complaint against Nasser Al-Belooshi was filed Monday, said Marie-Josephine Marchal, a press officer for the prosecutor’s office in the city of Nanterre.
Al-Belooshi “forcefully” denied the allegations, calling them “inaccurate and unfounded,” according to the official Bahrain News Agency.
The ambassador “remains at the disposal of the French authorities to shed light on these false accusations,” the news agency said Wednesday.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero commented on the case Tuesday but did not name the envoy or say what country he came from.
Valero referred to news reports suggesting the ambassador’s wife and son were also suspected of wrongdoing.
“To my knowledge, the ambassador and his wife are in the diplomatic list and therefore have diplomatic immunity, and the son does not,” Valero said Tuesday.