Tunisian diplomat defends herself after drunken video leaks

Ladgham intends to fight the decision to fire her Tunisia’s acting ambassador to Finland, Zohra Ladgham, has defended her reputation after a video began circulating on social media this weekend allegedly showing the diplomat drunkenly talking with Finnish police.
Ladgham, speaking to Arabstoday in an exclusive interview, claimed a disaffected staffer was behind the video leak.
The 90-second video, which shows the diplomat allegedly drunk and talking with two Finnish policemen, resulted in Ladgham losing her job.
The Tunisian diplomat has blamed her former driver, who she claims was a “fundamentalist” whom she was about to sack, for releasing the video.
Ladgham told Arabstoday the driver -- a “strict Salafist” -- behaved in “suspicious and extreme” ways.
“He sometimes refused to take orders from me because I’m a woman,” the former Tunisian ambassador to Finland said.
After requesting the government fire him, the driver “staged a plot to tarnish my image,” Ladgham claimed.
A man, thought to be chauffeur Khaled Chmengui, comments on Ladgham’s behaviour in the leaked video, saying: “Look at our ambassador, drunk with her boyfriend.”
“See what the secularists do,” he adds.
Laghdam claimed the video was made to look like she had been drink driving.
“I went out to dinner with a family friend,” she told Arabstoday. “When we left the restaurant, we were surprised to find two policeman had been given an anonymous tip-off that I was driving home drunk.”
“The policemen realised it was a false report and left. Meanwhile, my chauffeur was filming me and exploiting the situation,” she claimed.
Ladgham’s sister later telephoned to tell her that a video accusing her of driving under the influence of alcohol had gone viral on Facebook, she said.
The diplomat has meanwhile hit back at Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, claiming he has used the incident for “political ends.”
“It’s sad that a foreign minister in government would base his decision on a shady and false video spread on Facebook without bothering to check its authenticity,” she said.
Ladgham suggested Abdessalem had used the video to divert attention away from the “Sheratongate” Foreign Ministry scandal, which has allegedly implicated the minister in financial and administrative corruption.
Ladgham told Arabstoday she intends to fight the decision to sack her, and called for an investigation into the incident.