The United States has rejected the request by Britain for the extradition of Anne Sacoolas.
The wife of a U.S. diplomat, Sacoolas was involved in a crash last year that killed British teenager Harry Dunn near a Royal Air Force base in Northamptonshire.
After the incident, Sacoolas was given diplomatic immunity and left the U.K., returning to the U.S. The U.K. launched an extradition procedure earlier this month after prosecutors authorised police to charge Saccolas with causing death by dangerous driving, however, the request has now been rejected by the U.S.
In a statement, a U.S. state department representative said;
“At the time the accident occurred, and for the duration of her stay in the U.K., the U.S. citizen driver in this case had immunity from criminal jurisdiction,”
“If the United States were to grant the UK’s extradition request, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab responded in a statement by saying the decision “amounts to a denial of justice, and we believe Anne Sacoolas should return to the U.K. We are now urgently considering our options.”
Photo Credit: Steve Daniels under licence (CC BY-SA 2.0)
