Saturday, April 24, 2004

Sex Scandal!

Dominique Ambiel, 49, chief spokesman for blowhard prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was arrested in the presence of a 17 year-old Romanian prostitute in the night of Monday to Tuesday, April 20-21, in the wealthy 17th arrondissement, Le Monde revealed yesterday. He will be tried on 7 June in the 15th Chamber of the Paris correctional court for having "sollicted, accepted or obtained in exchange for payment, relations of a sexual nature from a minor who engages in prostitution, including on an occasional basis," a crime punishable by 3 years in prison and a €45,000 fine, in accordance with article 225-12-1 of the penal code, passed on March 4, 2002, "on resorting to the prostitution of minors or particularly vulnerable persons."

He was arrested in flagrante delicto by a vice squad and he then heaped scorn on the police which got him a second charge for "insulting behavior to police officers."

Ambiel has wasted no time in announcing his departure: "Out of consideration for the prime minister and given my responsibilities, I have decided to leave my post several weeks earlier than anticipated, in order to express myself freely about the malicious allegations that may result from this incident," he said in a written statement to Le Monde.

He came to work for the prime-minister in May of 2002 and was charged with protecting the latter's image. Head of a TV production company, Ambiel had an impressive array of connections which he called on while running the government's communications office.

Toward 2 am, on Tuesday April 20, Ambiel left the prime minister's residence to return to his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine). According to his version of events, he parked his car at home and then realized that he had forgotten an important file that he needed for a meeting the next morning. He says he turned around to go back to the office.

At a traffic light at the intersection of boulevard Pereire and avenue des Ternes at around 2:30 am, a fight supposedly broke out between two prostitutes in a bus shelter. He claims one of them ran toward his car and that he attempted to lock his doors but mistakenly unlocked them. The young woman then supposedly took a seat in passenger side his car, speaking incomprehensibly. Ambiel says he drove onward to help the girl. At the next light, he claims he pulled over and asked her to get out. "I dropped her off less than two minutes later and about 300 meters further down the street to put her out of harm's reach," Ambiel wrote in his statement.

It was at this precise moment that a team from the night anti-criminality brigade (BAC) appeared in an unmarked car. [...]

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