A serious row has broken out between Britain and the USA over an apparent abuse of diplomatic immunity after a woman who happens to be the wife of a US diplomat based in the UK fled the country after being involved in a fatal road accident.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-49961679The incident occurred just outside an RAF airbase in Northamptonshire UK on the 27 August. An American woman later identified as Anne Sacoolas 42 pulled out of the access road at RAF Croughton but drove along the wrong side of the main B4031 road for some 400 yards before colliding head-on with Harry Dunn 19 who was riding a motocycle along the correct side of the road. He suffered serious injuries and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
The American woman was interviewed by police and identified herself as the wife of a US diplomat based at RAF Croughton. She admitted driving on the wrong side of the road, and gave an assurance that she would not leave the country while a police investigation was in progress.
Police then discovered that efforts were being made to invoke diplomatic immunity on her behalf by US State department lawyers. Northamptonshire police were in the middle of filing an urgent request asking the US authorities to waive diplomatic immunity when they were informed that the woman and her husband had already left the country after being ‘recalled’ to the USA.
Under the terms of article 29 of the 1961 Vienna convention on diplomatic relations (VCDR), diplomats and their families normally have immunity from civil or criminal prosecution under the laws of a host country, although this immunity may be waived under the terms of article 32.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), this immunity does not normally extend to dependents of consular officials based outside of London. It has come to light however that a ‘special arrangement’ exists in respect of US diplomatic staff based at RAF Croughton (which happens to be well outside London), and has done so since 1994.
RAF Croughton is no ordinary airbase. It was taken over by the US air force in the mid-1950s, and has become one the largest military switchboards and communications centres in the whole of Europe. It processes approximately a third of all US military communications in Europe and is one of the largest and most important American C&C spybases in Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Croughton