KATHMANDU: German Ambassador to Nepal, Udo Volz, clarified on Friday that neither he nor the German Embassy has authorized any media publications or spoken to journalists regarding his recent visit to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

The Ambassador’s statement, posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), comes in the wake of a controversial news report published by a Nepali media outlet.

“Media outlets in Nepal have been reporting about my recent visit to PMO in various forms and manners,” Ambassador Volz wrote. “I would like to underline that neither I personally nor the German Embassy have had any exchanges with journalists on this and have not authorised any publication in this respect.”

The clarification follows a news report, which alleged high-handedness by Prime Minister Balen Shah’s advisors and aides at the PMO earlier this week.

According to the media report, German Ambassador Volz visited the PMO on Monday morning, where he was allegedly subjected to “undignified language and behavior” by the Prime Minister’s aides regarding an e-passport contract awarded to a German company.

The report further claimed that following the meeting with the Ambassador, top officials from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)—including Chief Commissioner Prem Rai—were detained at the PMO for nine hours and pressured by the PM’s advisors to issue arrest warrants against Department of Passport officials over alleged irregularities in the e-passport contract.

While the Prime Minister’s Office has yet to issue an official statement on the alleged incident, Ambassador Volz’s swift clarification aims to distance the German diplomatic mission from the ongoing domestic political and media storm.