U.S. Declines British Request To Extradite Diplomat's Wife Who Killed Teen
The United States government will not extradite a diplomat’s wife who killed a teenager while driving on the wrong side of the road in England, according to the State Department.
Anne Sacoolas and her family retreated to the U.S. from the United Kingdom just weeks after the Aug. 27 crash that left 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn dead. She was charged last month in the U.K. with causing death by dangerous driving, which can only be prosecuted once she is extradited from the U.S.
The State Department said Thursday, however, that the U.S. government will not fulfill the U.K.’s extradition request because Sacoolas, 42, had “immunity from criminal jurisdiction” at the time the crash occurred and for the duration of her stay in England.
“If the United States were to grant the U.K.’s extradition request, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent,” a spokesperson for the department said. “The United States has a history of close law enforcement cooperation with the United Kingdom, and we value that relationship.
“The United States government again expresses its sincere condolences and sympathy to the Dunn family for the loss of their son.”
Public outrage in the U.K. over the diplomatic immunity claim led Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask President Donald Trump to intervene. Trump defended Sacoolas in October after Dunn’s parents came to the White House to plead with American officials to reconsider Sacoolas’s diplomatic immunity.
“It was very sad, to be honest,” Trump said in October. “They lost their son. I believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in Europe. You go to Europe and the roads are opposite. And it’s very tough if you’re from the U.S. … That happens to a lot of people, by the way.”
