UK and US close diplomatic immunity loophole used in Harry Dunn case
UK and US officials have struck a deal to amend the “anomaly” that allowed Harry Dunn’s alleged killer Anne Sacoolas to claim diplomatic immunity following his death in a road collision last year, the foreign secretary has said.
Dominic Raab this morning said changes had been made that would “see justice done” if another family were to end up in a similar situation to that of the Dunn family.
In a written statement, the foreign secretary said: “First and foremost, the US waiver of immunity from criminal jurisdiction is now expressly extended to the family members of US staff at the Croughton Annex, thus ending the anomaly in the previous arrangements and permitting the criminal prosecution of the family members of those staff, should these tragic circumstances ever arise again.
“We have the deepest sympathy for Harry Dunn’s family. No family should have to experience what they have gone through and I recognise that these changes will not bring Harry back.
“However, I hope that the knowledge that the Croughton arrangements have been revised and that a family in their position would now see justice done brings some small measure of comfort.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday told US secretary of state Mike Pompeo about the “need for justice to be done” with regards to 19-year-old Dunn’s death and that his killer should be extradited to the UK.
Dunn was killed in a traffic collision in Northamptonshire in August last year when former CIA operative Sacoolas hit him while she was driving on the wrong side of the road.
She admitted to driving the car on the wrong side of the road and crashing into him on his motorbike, but immediately fled to the US where she sought diplomatic immunity against being extradited to the UK to face charges.
An extradition request submitted by the Home Office for Sacoolas’ return to the UK was rejected by Pompeo in January in a decision the State Department said was “final”.
However, the amendment today raises questions over whether the judgement will now be overruled.
A spokesperson for the PM yesterday said: “The Prime Minister reiterated the need for justice to be done for Harry Dunn and his family.”
“He said there was a strong feeling among the people of the UK that justice must be delivered.”
Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, yesterday accused Raab of being a “lost child in an adult’s world” following the foreign secretary’s discussions with the US secretary of state.
Charles took to the gates of Downing Street after claiming “words are not enough anymore” in her campaign to bring her son’s killer to justice.
She said she had come she had come “to show Mr Pompeo and Mr Raab and Mr Johnson that I’m not just going to stick on my TV and watch them at home.
“It’s really important that we come here and let them know that Harry was important and they need to realise that,” she told the PA news agency.
“So I’m not going to stay at home … I intend to make sure that they are aware that we’ve made the effort to be here to try to communicate with them.”