Johnson asks US to rethink immunity of American woman

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that he will raise with the U.S. the issue of the wife of an American diplomat who was involved in a fatal traffic accident but left the country with diplomatic immunity.

Johnson commented on the departure of Anne Sacoolas who left following the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn after causing his death when she hit his bike on the wrong side of the road outside the RAF Croughton base.

Sacoolas left the U.K. following the incident, which took place on Aug. 27, claiming diplomatic immunity.

"I do not think that it can be right to use the process of diplomatic immunity for this type of purpose,” Johnson said.

"I hope that Anne Sacoolas will come back and engage properly with the processes of law as they're carried out in this country,” he added.

"That's a point we are raising today with the American ambassador here in the U.K.”

A spokesman from the U.S. State Department said "immunity is rarely waived".

He said: "Any questions regarding a waiver of immunity with regard to our diplomats and their family members overseas in a case like this receive intense attention at senior levels and are considered carefully given the global impact such decisions carry; immunity is rarely waived.”

The spokesman said he would not speculate on conversations with the U.K. government.

The teenager’s father Tim Dunn told Sky News that Sacoolas “was compliant with the police, she admitted at the time she was in the wrong.”

“We know from the police she was going to stay in the country, she was permitted to stay here for three years,” he added.

"And then we didn't think this would be what is happening so to hear the news a few weeks after the funeral was devastating."