Saad Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon, is being sued by two flight attendants who say they were sexually assaulted on his private plane.
According to CNN, the case was lodged against Saad El-Din Rafik Al-Hariri and five co-defendants in the United States District Court on March 20, 2023.
The two female flight attendants, one from Wales and the other from Australia were only referred to in court filings as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.
The mishaps happened aboard the former prime minister’s personal Boeing 737 between 2006 and 2009.
The Adult Survivors Act, which gives survivors of sexual offenses that happened while they were older than 18 the right to bring a lawsuit regardless of when the abuse took place, was signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, enabling the plaintiffs to proceed with their legal case.
The Australian lady Jane Doe 1 claims, in a report by the Australian Financial Review, that she “experienced harassment and intimidation from many of the men onboard [Mr Hariri]’s flights”.
The lawsuit, according to CNN, also alleges that Saad subjected both plaintiffs “to an atmosphere permeated with inappropriate sexual contact, coercion, harassment, and demands sexual favors”.
Hariri’s press office denied the accusations in a statement made to CNN, saying the lawsuit is, “full of completely false and unacceptable accusations, aimed at provocation and slander against Prime Minister Hariri”.
52-year-old Saad Hariri presided over Lebanon as prime minister twice, from 2009 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020. Rafic al-Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, was his father, and he entered politics after his death in 2005.
