African diplomat accused in NYC rape may have fled US with wife, kids
The African envoy accused of raping a neighbor in their Upper Manhattan building and then dodging charges thanks to diplomatic immunity may have fled the US.
No sounds came from inside Charles Dickens Imene Oliha’s apartment Tuesday when The Post repeatedly knocked, and there was no light visible from behind a red curtain fluttering in a window.
The State Department wouldn’t say if Oliha, 46, left the country or if the US government was seeking to have his immunity revoked, with a rep saying, “We do not comment on the specifics of ongoing investigations.
“We are aware of the incident referenced involving a diplomat accredited to the United Nations,” the representative said in an e-mail.
“We take these allegations seriously, and we are working closely with the New York Police Department and the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, as we do in all legal and criminal cases involving foreign diplomats assigned to Permanent Missions and Observer Offices at the UN.”
An NYPD spokesman said, “It’s a situation where the State Department is going to have to decide what they are going to do with the case.
“It’s still under investigation at this point,” the spokesman added.
“Whenever there’s a sexual assault like this, it’s horrible. As a law-enforcement agency, we have done all that we can do at this point.”
In a prepared statement, City Hall said, “Sexual assault of any kind should never be tolerated.
“There is an active investigation underway. Depending on the results, we will take all appropriate actions.”
Oliha was accused of twice raping a 24-year-old woman — once with a condom and once without — after following her from the lobby of their building on Wadsworth Terrace and forcing his way into her apartment around noon Sunday.
It doesn’t appear that they knew each other, police said.
The woman allegedly told cops she was in shock afterward and fell asleep, with a friend later convincing her to call 911. She called 911 around 9:30 p.m., and cops took Oliha into custody for questioning around 10:45 p.m., law-enforcement sources said Tuesday.
The woman was taken to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where a rape kit was performed, sources said.
But Oliha was cut loose without any charges early Monday after detectives confirmed he enjoyed diplomatic immunity because of his job with South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the NYPD said.
It’s unclear if the NYPD obtained a sample of his DNA before he was freed.
After Oliha’s release, two women answered the door to his apartment Monday but declined to comment amid the sounds of young children in the background.
One woman, who wore a Puerto Rican flag mask, later identified herself as a neighbor.
Other neighbors told The Post on Tuesday that Oliha was married and raising four kids, including a newborn.
One neighbor said Oliha “was under immense stress” from his job and began drinking so heavily that he repeatedly passed out on the sidewalk before he suddenly stopped about three weeks ago.
“There was something happening with his government. There was turmoil within their office at the UN,” the neighbor said.
“In the early days of summer, he would drink outside and fall asleep on the sidewalk.”
The neighbor added: “I got to know him over those months of turmoil when he was clearly troubled.
“He was going through some s–t, and drinking is what he did.”
A Spanish-speaking man who was drinking outside Oliha’s building Tuesday afternoon said he’d seen the disgraced diplomat down as much as a six-pack of Coors Light.
A worker at the Terrace Grocery next door said Oliha was a regular customer who bought two or three cans of Heineken, usually daily.
“He was a nice customer, my No. 1 customer,” the worker said.
“He was calm.”
A representative of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Sudan to the UN did not return a request for comment from The Post on Tuesday.
