France 24 Sues for Identity Theft Regarding Members of the Syrian Embassy in France

France 24 has officially filed a complaint to the Paris Public Prosecutor regarding identity theft and impersonation. 

On Tuesday 7 June 2011, during the France 24 Debate programme which was about Syria, the network invited the Ambassador of Syria to France, Lamia Chakkour, to participate. This invitation was made via the embassy, which, when contacted by telephone and e-mail, provided a telephone number said to be that of the ambassador, together with a photograph of the ambassador. It was using this number that the exchange took place, in which the declaration of the ambassador’s resignation was made. That resignation was then confirmed in a wire published by the Reuters press agency, quoting the Syrian Embassy as its source.

Ms Lamia Chakkour subsequently denied this announcement on other television channels and alleged that she had been “impersonated”. When asked by France 24 to explain this denial, Ms Lamia Chakkour declined to give an interview to the channel.

France 24 has no option but to take Ms Chakkour’s denials seriously.

France 24 commissioned comparative analyses which show that the voice heard during the interview conducted on France 24 on Tuesday evening is different from the voice which later issued the denial broadcast on BFM TV.

France 24 has no doubt that Ambassador Chakkour and the Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic in France, who were swift to report the manipulation of which they, like France 24, appear to have been the victims, will give their total support to this complaint and collaborate fully in the ensuing investigations.