Diplomatic immunity

[Hobbit]

Diplomatic Immunity shouldn't be revoked. It should be for the US Justice system to decide if she should be 'advised' to return to the UK. This way DI will be protected. As unsavoury as that might sound, the sanctity of DI has to be protected, and the responsibility should lie with the diplomat's home country to decide if the case is valid. Appreciate that might seem a bit skewed but there is a greater precedent to be protected.

 

[USER1999]

I would think / assume she was breathalised at the scene. I would be very surprised if she wasn't, and there has been nothing mentioned re this in the papers. There is cctv apparently showing her drive out of the air base onto the wrong side of the road. A terrible mistake, for sure, but an accidental one, and one many of us have made whilst driving abroad.

 

[MegaSteve]

I would think / assume she was breathalised at the scene. I would be very surprised if she wasn't, and there has been nothing mentioned re this in the papers. There is cctv apparently showing her drive out of the air base onto the wrong side of the road. A terrible mistake, for sure, but an accidental one, and one many of us have made whilst driving abroad.

A "mistake" we'd expect to be punished for... More especially if a life was lost...

 

[Deleted member 15344]

She should be told to return to the UK and face the consequences of her actions , a young lad has lost his life , parents have lost their son and it’s poor that they have left the country. You would hope and expect the US to do the right thing and send her back just like you would fully expect the US to be demanding it to happen if it happened in their country.

 

[clubchamp98]

I would think / assume she was breathalised at the scene. I would be very surprised if she wasn't, and there has been nothing mentioned re this in the papers. There is cctv apparently showing her drive out of the air base onto the wrong side of the road. A terrible mistake, for sure, but an accidental one, and one many of us have made whilst driving abroad.

She was interviewed with embassy staff.
Who told the police she would stay in the country.
She has also been named on the news on BBC.

She is a major witness to the death of a young man, and to do a runner does not look good.

Do you think the Sherif in the USA or state trouper would let one of us go after killing an American citizen by driving on the left.
We would be in jail until you come before the judge.

 

[clubchamp98]

Diplomatic Immunity shouldn't be revoked. It should be for the US Justice system to decide if she should be 'advised' to return to the UK. This way DI will be protected. As unsavoury as that might sound, the sanctity of DI has to be protected, and the responsibility should lie with the diplomat's home country to decide if the case is valid. Appreciate that might seem a bit skewed but there is a greater precedent to be protected.

That’s fair enough in Iraq or a hostile environment.
But these are supposed to be our biggest allies.
But am sure the family won’t see it that way.

 

[GB72]

The solution here is to allow the UK police to interview her again in full as part of their investigation, present the full case to the US and allow a decision to be made as to whether the US agree to the removal of her immune status. We, of course, cannot arbitrarily remove the status, it has to be removed by the US government.

If the status is removed, she can be tried with it being her decision whether to attend and with any sentence to be served in the US.

This is unlikely to happen and with Brexit approaching this will not even be deemed newsworthy in a couple of weeks.

That may seem totally wrong but that is realistic. With trade deals etc to be done after, it is the sad state of affairs that one life is not going to be allowed to jeopardize it. That is unless trump needs our support for something or a hand in investigating Biden then she will be on the next plane over the Atlantic

 

[clubchamp98]

The solution here is to allow the UK police to interview her again in full as part of their investigation, present the full case to the US and allow a decision to be made as to whether the US agree to the removal of her immune status. We, of course, cannot arbitrarily remove the status, it has to be removed by the US government.

If the status is removed, she can be tried with it being her decision whether to attend and with any sentence to be served in the US.

This is unlikely to happen and with Brexit approaching this will not even be deemed newsworthy in a couple of weeks.

That may seem totally wrong but that is realistic. With trade deals etc to be done after, it is the sad state of affairs that one life is not going to be allowed to jeopardize it. That is unless trump needs our support for something or a hand in investigating Biden then she will be on the next plane over the Atlantic

Unfortunately I think you may be right.
But it’s a sad day that the death of a young man is used as a bargaining tool.

I spend a lot of time in the US and I think the ordinary man in the street won’t be happy with the way their government have behaved here.
Be interesting to see if the tv networks run it.

A big problem for me with DI is she could come back next week just keep quiet and kill someone else next time she fancies a drive on the wrong side of the road.

 

[GB72]

Unfortunately I think you may be right.
But it’s a sad day that the death of a young man is used as a bargaining tool.

I spend a lot of time in the US and I think the ordinary man in the street won’t be happy with the way their government have behaved here.
Be interesting to see if the tv networks run it.

A big problem for me with DI is she could come back next week just keep quiet and kill someone else next time she fancies a drive on the wrong side of the road.

I suspect it is hardly being reported over there what with pretty much all news coverage being taken up by impeachment.

 

[Hobbit]

That’s fair enough in Iraq or a hostile environment.
But these are supposed to be our biggest allies.
But am sure the family won’t see it that way.

It shouldn't be up to the family. This is a country to country thing, as its under DI. I'd hope the US would feel that she'd get a fair deal in the UK. Equally, if it was Iraq I wouldn't expect the UK or the US to send someone back there.

 

[clubchamp98]

I suspect it is hardly being reported over there what with pretty much all news coverage being taken up by impeachment.

The politics there are worse than here.
But there are stations that will run this stuff.

Boris is getting involved and if he asked Trump directly I would expect the tv networks to get involved especially the anti Trump ones.
Depending on his answer of course.

 

[clubchamp98]

It shouldn't be up to the family. This is a country to country thing, as its under DI. I'd hope the US would feel that she'd get a fair deal in the UK. Equally, if it was Iraq I wouldn't expect the UK or the US to send someone back there.

The family will expect our government to do something about it, rightly so.

Would a diplomats wife be driving around Iraq on her own?
It’s there to protect them in hostile countries ,they shouldn’t need it in allied country’s all they need to do here is abide by the law.

 

[GB72]

The politics there are worse than here.
But there are stations that will run this stuff.

Boris is getting involved and if he asked Trump directly I would expect the tv networks to get involved especially the anti Trump ones.
Depending on his answer of course.

True. Was only going by the US news I saw on holiday the other week. Every news channel was just talking heads going on about impeachment almost 24/7

 

[SocketRocket]

The following is a cut and paste from part of the Wikipedia description for DI. It clarifies the requirements for DI in cases such as this:


"It is possible for the official's home country to waive immunity; this tends to happen only when the individual has committed a serious crime, unconnected with their diplomatic role (as opposed to, say, allegations of spying), or has witnessed such a crime. However, many countries refuse to waive immunity as a matter of course; individuals have no authority to waive their own immunity[1] (except perhaps in cases of defection).[2] Alternatively, the home country may prosecute the individual.[2] If immunity is waived by a government so that a diplomat (or their family members) can be prosecuted, it must be[according to whom?] because there is a case to answer and it is in the public interest to prosecute them. For instance, in 2002, a Colombian diplomat in London was prosecuted for manslaughter, once diplomatic immunity was waived by the Colombian government."

 

[Old Skier]

I would think / assume she was breathalised at the scene. I would be very surprised if she wasn't, and there has been nothing mentioned re this in the papers. There is cctv apparently showing her drive out of the air base onto the wrong side of the road. A terrible mistake, for sure, but an accidental one, and one many of us have made whilst driving abroad.

The base that she drove out of is a very interesting place and, without a tin hat on, I wonder if she might have been working for the US Government as well as her husband.

 

[clubchamp98]

Thing is if they refuse to send her back for such a serious case.
They will lose all authority with other countries to ask for this themselves.
As the other country can just bring this up as double standards.

Heard on the news her children were in the car, what does that teach them .

 

[Deleted member 18645]

Can we get Mel Gibson and Danny Glover to handle it like they did Joss Ackland in Lethal Weapon 2 when he claimed diplomatic immunity?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The politics there are worse than here.
But there are stations that will run this stuff.

Boris is getting involved and if he asked Trump directly I would expect the tv networks to get involved especially the anti Trump ones.
Depending on his answer of course.

It would be interesting to hear Trump answer a direct question but as others have said I fear Brexit and impeachment taking precedence and so any conversation likely to be held behind closed doors and little if anything mentioned about it

 

[Hacker Khan]

Thing is if they refuse to send her back for such a serious case.
They will lose all authority with other countries to ask for this themselves.
As the other country can just bring this up as double standards.

Heard on the news her children were in the car, what does that teach them .

If indeed they were they they would have been in a car accident, witnessed their mother kill someone, then been dragged out of their home, school and away from their friends and transported to another country at short notice. So probably not the time and place for teaching them life lessons with all that trauma going on to be honest. They are just more victims of a sad sad episode.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

If indeed they were they they would have been in a car accident, witnessed their mother kill someone, then been dragged out of their home, school and away from their friends and transported to another country at short notice. So probably not the time and place for teaching them life lessons with all that trauma going on to be honest. They are just more victims of a sad sad episode.

It’s said they had only been in the country for 3 weeks, so I imagine no roots would have been payed in that short a space of time