by William M. Reilly
UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday welcomed the reopening of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the deputy director of UNAIDS, Luiz Loures.
"We welcome the decision by UNAIDS to reopen the investigation into these allegations and to suspend the decisions to close the case until the outcome of the broader investigation," said chief UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric during a regular briefing with reporters.
"The UNAIDS (UN Program on HIV/AIDS) executive director (Michel Sidibe) remains recused from this case and no UNAIDS official will be involved going forward," said Dujarric, adding that World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has agreed to serve as the "decision maker" in the new investigation.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is "very appreciative of the decision by the WHO director general to serve in that capacity," the spokesman said. The announcement was made last Friday. Allegations of sexual assault by a female subordinate, Martina Brostrom, against Loures were investigated internally and the results announced at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva by Sidibe who said the allegations could not be substantiated.
Critics said the investigation was flawed from early on and the intervention by Sidibe confirmed to them it was a biased report.
Since then additional allegations of similar sexual transgressions by Loures, who retires Monday, have been lodged.
The new investigation is being run by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services based at UN Headquarters in New York.
That latest decision was criticized by activists who are calling for an investigation entirely outside the world organization.
