Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Sex, lies and Swiss angst as diplomat collides with editor

Matthew Beard
Saturday 13 July 2002 00:00 BST
Comments

A tawdry tale of a Swiss diplomat and his illicit affair with a glamorous Berlin shop assistant has taken a new twist because the editor of the tabloid newspaper that published the story has resigned – after the woman at the centre of the scandal retracted her version of events.

Mathias Nolte, the editor SonntagsBlick stepped down yesterday. Details of a tryst between Djamile Rowe, a model from Berlin, and Thomas Borer were splashed over the mass circulation tabloid and its sister paper Blick in the spring. The stories led to the diplomat being recalled from Berlin.

In the article, accompanied by pictures appearing to confirm the allegations, Rowe claimed she met the ambassador at the embassy several times while his wife, a former Miss Texas, was away.

According to a first affidavit sworn with lawyers representing the Swiss tabloids, Miss Rowe, 34, said she was smuggled into the Swiss Embassy, had sex on a negotiating table with the ambassador and on the leopard-skin carpet of the ambassador's bedroom. The bedroom, including a dog kennel in Swiss colours, was described in detail as were intimate facts about the ambassador's body.

Last week, Miss Rowe signed a sworn statement in Berlin saying she claimed having the affair with Borer in return for payment and because she was pressed by one of the journalists. According to the statement, the reporter told Rowe the newspaper would report the affair "with or without" Rowe's agreement, and threatened to publish nude photographs of Rowe.

"Because I was under enormous psychological pressure , I could see no way out. I was offered a large sum of money and I agreed to go along with the untrue story published in Blick and SonntagsBlick and allow it to be continued," Rowe said.

Despite Mr Nolte's resignation, the newspaper group threatened to take legal action against Rowe, saying her claims were "in irrevocable contradiction with earlier statements made by Miss Rowe in various media in Switzerland and abroad and to the affidavit that she gave to Ringier."

Borer said he was happy that Rowe had withdrawn her story and was waiting for a reaction from the Swiss government. "I said from the beginning the story was untrue. My wife and I are relieved that the truth is coming out," he said.

There was no comment from the Swiss foreign ministry.

Borer and his wife Shawne Fielding – a model and beauty queen in the early 1990s – were regularly in the news from the time they took the Berlin posting in 1999. Borer first attracted attention at a party when he was dressed in leaves.

A year ago, Ms Fielding provoked an inquiry by the ministry when she appeared as the "Cowgirl from the Alps" in the magazine Max, clad in a strapless evening dress on a horse.

Werner Baumann, formerly Switzerland's ambassador to the Philippines, has succeeded Borer as ambassador in Berlin.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in