Interpol issues red notice for 'fugitive' Anne Sacoolas
Suspect in UK death of teenager Harry Dunn fled to US claiming diplomatic immunity
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Mon 11 May 2020
Harry Dunn was 19 when he was killed after his motorcycle was hit by a car.
Photograph: Family Handout/PA
An Interpol notice has been circulated worldwide making Anne Sacoolas in effect a fugitive from justice if she sets foot outside her native United States.
Sacoolas was charged in the UK with causing the death by dangerous driving of a 19-year-old motorcyclist, Harry Dunn, last August.
The US refused to accept an extradition warrant, saying she enjoyed diplomatic immunity at the time of the crash. Her husband worked at a CIA spying base, RAF Croughton in Northampton.
She and her family left the country with the knowledge of the Foreign Office a fortnight later. The Foreign Office agreed she had diplomatic immunity, a point disputed by lawyers working for Dunn’s family.
Boris Johnson and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, have both asked for Sacoolas to be extradited, but the political pressure has led nowhere. Donald Trump instead suggested compensation and tried to engineer a meeting in the White House between Sacoolas and Dunn’s parents.
Radd Seiger, a lawyer for the Dunn family, said Northamptonshire police had confirmed that the Interpol notice had been issued, adding that this meant in the Foreign Office’s view she did not have diplomatic immunity at the time of her initial arrest. “Red notices would not be served on valid diplomats,” he said. “It means she would be arrested if she sought to leave the United States.”
He continued: “It is time for her to come back to the UK and on behalf of the family I urge the authorities both in London and Washington to make that happen. It is time to do the right thing.” He said she would receive a fair trial in the UK.
Seiger said: “It is a monumental scandal. The UK government know it and that is why Harry’s parents were treated like lepers. Both governments were and are terrified that this was all going to be exposed. Well thanks to the free press it has been. Parliament must now launch a full-scale inquiry into what happened.”
An Interpol notice has been circulated worldwide making Anne Sacoolas in effect a fugitive from justice if she sets foot outside her native United States.
Sacoolas was charged in the UK with causing the death by dangerous driving of a 19-year-old motorcyclist, Harry Dunn, last August.
The US refused to accept an extradition warrant, saying she enjoyed diplomatic immunity at the time of the crash. Her husband worked at a CIA spying base, RAF Croughton in Northampton.
She and her family left the country with the knowledge of the Foreign Office a fortnight later. The Foreign Office agreed she had diplomatic immunity, a point disputed by lawyers working for Dunn’s family.
Boris Johnson and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, have both asked for Sacoolas to be extradited, but the political pressure has led nowhere. Donald Trump instead suggested compensation and tried to engineer a meeting in the White House between Sacoolas and Dunn’s parents.
Radd Seiger, a lawyer for the Dunn family, said Northamptonshire police had confirmed that the Interpol notice had been issued, adding that this meant in the Foreign Office’s view she did not have diplomatic immunity at the time of her initial arrest. “Red notices would not be served on valid diplomats,” he said. “It means she would be arrested if she sought to leave the United States.”
He continued: “It is time for her to come back to the UK and on behalf of the family I urge the authorities both in London and Washington to make that happen. It is time to do the right thing.” He said she would receive a fair trial in the UK.
Seiger said: “It is a monumental scandal. The UK government know it and that is why Harry’s parents were treated like lepers. Both governments were and are terrified that this was all going to be exposed. Well thanks to the free press it has been. Parliament must now launch a full-scale inquiry into what happened.”
Seiger is specifically angry that the Foreign Office, within days of the accident, agreed with US lawyers that Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity, when this claim was at best arguable in court.
A red notice has been described as an international wanted person’s notice but is not in itself an arrest warrant.
Interpol issued nearly 14,000 red notices last year. It cannot compel the law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest someone who is the subject of a red notice.
Each member country decides what legal value it gives to a red notice and the authority of their law enforcement officers to make arrests.
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A red notice has been described as an international wanted person’s notice but is not in itself an arrest warrant.
Interpol issued nearly 14,000 red notices last year. It cannot compel the law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest someone who is the subject of a red notice.
Each member country decides what legal value it gives to a red notice and the authority of their law enforcement officers to make arrests.
Topics
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