18 June 2011
PARIS, FRANCE (SANA) - The Syrian Embassy in Paris on Friday issued a Communiqué stating the following:

At 19:20 exactly on 7 June, Paris Time, TV channel France 24 aired a live interview with a woman who had assumed the identity of Mrs. Lamia Chakkour, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic in France, on English-language, French-language and Arabic channels and on its Internet site, spuriously announcing her resignation.

Such a blatant case of identity theft should have attracted the attention of any conscientious and rigorous journalist.

Immediately after the broadcast of this false report, Mrs. Chakkour issued a live statement from her office at the Syrian Embassy in Paris, for the attention of the French and foreign media, firmly and categorically refuting her resignation.

Moreover Her Excellency told several TV channels & Radios (France 2, BFM TV, La Satellitaire Syrienne, Al Dunya, Al Jadeed, Al Arabiya, Al-Jazeera and Radio BBC, which had interviewed her live at the Embassy in Paris) that she was instituting legal proceedings against the persons behind this false report.

Accordingly, on 15 June 2011, Mrs. Lamia Chakkour lodged a complaint with the State Prosecutor at the Court of First Instance in Paris, requesting a charge of indictment for the false report.

Any newspaper or web sites broadcasting a report of her alleged resignation will be sued.

© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2011