Before
Khobragade, US
Let French Dip
Serman Flee Before
Indictment,
&
Return
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 9 --
In the run up
to today's US
indictment of
Indian
diplomat
Devyani
Khobragade for
underpaying a
domestic
worker,
US State
Department
spokespeople
repeatedly
insisted that
the US has
the utmost
respect for
India, that
the
relationship
is extremely
important to
the US and
they want to
"move on."
Back
in 2011,
though, Inner
City Press uncovered
and
exclusively
reported
on the case of
a French
diplomat,
Romain Serman,
who after
assaulting
a New York
Police
Department
officer while
allegedly
buying cocaine
was allowed to
leave the
country before
any
indictment. See story
here, arrest report here.
While
it may be
debatable if
assaulting a
police officer
when being
arrested for
cocaine
purchase is
more or less
serious than
allegedly
underpaying a
domestic
worker, the
disparity in
US treatment
between
the French and
Indian and
French
diplomat
cannot be
missed.
The
Indian
diplomat was
arrested,
booked and
stripped
searched --
and
today
indicted. The
French
diplomat
Romain Serman
was allowed to
quietly leave
the country
without any
indictment.
Usually
the
agreement upon
being allowed
to leave the
US in this way
is that
the person
will not come
back to the
US. But,
amazingly,
Romain
Serman came
back to the US
-- as France's
consul in San
Francisco, still.
When
Inner City
Press reported
this, the then
spokesperson
of the French
mission
demanded that
Inner City
Press remove
the story from
the
Internet.
As with stories
on Sri Lanka
that the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
demanded be
taken down
from the
Internet
or Inner City
Press face
expulsion,
Inner City
Press refused.
The
French
spokesperson
called this a
"hostile act"
(Inner City
Press
countered that
it was an act
of journalism)
and things
proceeded
from there.
This
becomes
relevant now
in light of
reports not
only of the
disparity in
indictment of
Khobragade
versus none
for the French
Serman, but
that
the US State
Department
might as an
accommodation
allow
Khobragade to
leave the
country, as
Serman was
allowed to do
WITHOUT
indictment.
Would
Khobragade
then be
allowed to
return -- as a
consul -- as
Serman was?
Watch this
site.
, 
