Boris Johnson will speak to Trump if US refuses to waive immunity for diplomat's wife
Source: Politico
Teenager Harry Dunn died when his motorbike collided with a car near an RAF base in Northamptonshire on August 27, the prime minister's spokesperson said on Monday.
A U.S. diplomat's wife, named as Anne Sacoolas, left the U.K. despite telling police she had no plans to, the BBC reported.
Johnson told ITV News: "I do not think that it can be right to use the process of diplomatic immunity for this type of purpose. And I hope that Anne Sacoolas will come back and will engage properly with the processes of law as they are carried out in this country."
Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/boris-johnson-us-should-reconsider-diplomatic-immunity-over-fatal-crash/
Why do I imagine Johnson is going to be another ally who discovers what Trump thinks of "loyalty"?
CurtEastPoint
(18,663 posts)She absolutely must be held accountable. That diplomatic immunity bullshit was not mean for this type of tragedy.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Either the law means something or it doesnt. She has immunity under the law.
bitterross
(4,066 posts)The law is intended to prevent political prosecutions. It is not meant to be a get out of jail free card. It isn't meant to protect people from such obvious wrong-doing. Would you like them to grant immunity to drug smugglers? it can, and should be in this case, waived by the US.
Using it in a cases like this only weakens it for times when it is really needed.
It sounds like a terrible accident, but she must face the consequences.
Boomer
(4,168 posts)This is not that different from killing someone while driving drunk. There might not be any intention to kill anyone, but there is a disregard for the risk and consequences of their actions when they picked up a drink.
Driving in a country with a different road system is really challenging and I'm curious whether the woman had driver's training, passed tests, took any measures to deal with the opposite-side-of-the-road configurations. This woman was obviously unprepared to drive in England, and she killed someone. Let the courts decide the appropriate sentence for that lapse of judgment.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)The issue is do we abide by the law or change the law? Ignoring it is not an option.
obamanut2012
(26,137 posts)JFC stop it.
Retrograde
(10,156 posts)It's not that difficult - if you keep alert all the time and pay attention to what you're doing (which you should do while operating a vehicle in the first place). Parallel parking can be a challenge, but for the most part you just translate everything from left to right and follow what the local traffic does. (It did help that my first experiences with right-hand drive was in Tasmania, where what people there are tend to drive in the middle of the road )
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)The British government is asking the US to waive diplomatic immunity.
It's been waived before in cases where people were killed, raped, abused, etc.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)bitterross
(4,066 posts)Did you mean to sound like Trump? It sounds like you are saying, "Well, everyone else does it."
That is not the way you lead. Of course, I guess we can choose to give up all pretense of being a leader in the world now. We have Trump as an excuse. I would hope we're better than that.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Historic NY
(37,453 posts)[link:https://usbreakingnews.net/2019/10/06/anne-sacoolas-5-fast-facts-you-need-to-know/|]
[link:https://www.pressreader.com/uk/evening-standard-west-end-final/20191007/281556587574558|]
She and her husband were here only 3 weeks. Strange how they claim this is a diplomatic posting.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)The "he will speak to the White House "'personally'" line from the OP article's ITV News tweet, was the opening round to get those illegal favors going...
And of course one big "favor" might end up being a huge obvious one that would probably be related to Christopher Steele.
Sgent
(5,857 posts)I know at one time we didn't as a general practice. We would prosecute them here in some cases, but we didn't waive immunity for anyone.
I don't think that anyone really thinks the UK is problematic in this situation, but what happens if a questionable situation arises in a non 5 eye's country where we think there is undue influence (say Italy or Greece)? Does waiving immunity here put us in an untenable position later?
Midnightwalk
(3,131 posts)From Wikipedia
It comes down to applying principles.
We are not questioning the impartiality or fairness of the UK legal system. We absolutely should wave immunity. Using immunity for cases like this weakens it.
Fleeing jurisdiction seems to make no sense in this case. I assume the police had gathered blood samples to determine if drugs or alcohol were involved and that she would have been arrested and held if they had been.
What are the penalties in the UK for killing someone in a car accident? Im guessing they arent that steep?
This smacks of affluenza. She didnt want the bother of dealing with the legal process and potential penalty. People of her stature dont deserve to deal with lowly matters like that.
usaf-vet
(6,207 posts)Five figures? Six figures? That is what you get when you sign on with Trump.
Texin
(2,597 posts)Unless your name starts with P and ends with N, tRump's got no fucks to give about anyone else.