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On a summer day in 2019, Harry Dunn was riding his motorcycle near an army base used by US troops in Northamptonshire, England, when he was hit and killed by an American “spy” driving on the wrong side of the road.
His family described the 19-year-old as “bubbly and outgoing” with a passion for motorbike riding. He had ridden more than 80,000 kilometers before his death.
The driver, Annie Sakulas, 45, fled the United Kingdom on a private plane 19 days later, protected by diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the United States government as a “diplomat’s wife”.
Harry’s death in the US and the UK began a three-year tug of war, as his parents chased him to the White House for justice.
Sakulas has never returned to the UK and appeared via video link at the Old Bailey on Thursday (local time) after the US government advised her not to travel to appear in person.
She was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for one year.
The long-running case has focused on diplomatic immunity and calls for changes to the rules.
Untouchable diplomat wife
In July 2019 Sakulas moved to the UK with her husband, Jonathan Sakulas, and their children.
She lived at RAF Crowton, a military base in central England, where her husband worked for the CIA.
Sacoolas also worked for the US Security Agency but was registered in the UK as the spouse of a diplomat “with no official role”.
Under the Vienna Convention, spouses and dependents of foreign diplomats are entitled to full diplomatic immunity while in their host country.
Sacoolas had been in the UK for less than a month when, at around 8pm on August 27, her Volvo SUV collided with Harry’s motorcycle while driving on the wrong side of the road.
Court documents show Harry suffered serious injuries but was able to tell police officers what happened.
He died later that evening at the hospital.
Sakulo initially cooperated with the police, who agreed to meet him the next day to answer questions about the fatal incident.
But the investigation stalled when officials were told she was a diplomat’s wife.
Associate Professor Alison Pert of the University of Sydney Law School said the British police were powerless against its diplomatic immunity.
“She couldn’t be arrested because she was inviolable, so she couldn’t have been physically stopped from leaving the country and she couldn’t have been prosecuted at that point,” Dr Pert told the ABC.
The US The government rejected the UK’s request to waive diplomatic immunity, and instead arranged for a private plane to return Sakulas and his family to the US.
In a statement released by her lawyers, Sakulas said she was “terribly, terribly sorry for the tragic mistake” and that she expressed her “deepest sympathies to Harry Dunn’s family.”
Back home in Virginia, Sakulas no longer qualified for diplomatic immunity but was beyond the reach of Britain.
For New York and the White House
Harry’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, were not told police could not charge their son’s killer until she left the country.
The Dunn family launched a global campaign to have Sakulas returned to the UK and held responsible for Harry’s death.
Mark Stephens, an international lawyer with the Howard Kennedy law firm who took on the Dunn family’s case as a pro-bono representative, said the US government underestimated the public reaction to the teenager’s death.
“I think the Americans were hoping to send their spy back to America and the Harry Dunn assassination would be a minor footnote in history,” Mr Stephens told the ABC.
“Normal, decent people would think her behavior was reprehensible, beyond the pale, and that’s why this has touched a nerve on a global scale.”
In October 2019, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a personal appeal to his then US counterpart Donald Trump, asking for Sakulas to be returned to the UK to face charges.
The request was rejected at all levels.
Taking matters into their own hands, the Dunn family raised money to travel to New York to ask the American public for support.
“When the Dunn family went to America and explained their case on national TV and how this woman had essentially gotten away … the American people were horrified,” Mr. Stephens said.
In New York, the Dunn family was invited to the White House to meet with Mr Trump.
Harry’s parents agreed to meet, hoping they would ask for Sakulas’ extradition to the UK.
But Trump had other plans.
“He had Sakulas in an office outside the Oval Office … and Ms. Sakulas tried to essentially forgive her right then and there,” Mr. Stephens said.
“Essentially Mrs. Dunn said: ‘No, not unless there’s a liability.’
Harry Dunn’s mother stopped Mr Trump as he started to leave the office, Mr Stephens said.
“Ms. Dunn said very politely, ‘Mr. President, what would you do if you had a child like this?'”
“It hit the wire with Donald Trump. It hit his house, and he stopped and he turned around and he looked back at Mrs Dunn and he said: ‘I might do what you’re doing Mrs Dunn.’
The family did not meet with Sakulus. Afterwards, Mr Trump told reporters that Mr Johnson had asked him to meet Harry’s parents.
The UK High Court heard that Robert O’Brien, the US national security adviser at the time, was also at the meeting and told the Dunn family that Sakulas was “never coming back”.
Transatlantic dispute over ‘totally inadmissible’ case
Four months after Harry’s death, Northampton police charged Sakulas with dangerous driving causing death in absentia and began extradition proceedings.
The US State Department condemned the extradition request as a “gross abuse … that would set a troubling precedent”.
The US rejected the UK’s extradition request for the first time.
In response, British MP Jeremy Hunt said the US government was not acting as an ally with the UK.
“It is completely and utterly unacceptable that she is not facing justice in the UK,” Mr Hunt told Sky News UK.
“If we’re going to be a coalition, we need to treat each other like allies, and that’s not happening.”
Lawyer Mark Stephens believes Sakulas had a highly secretive role in the US government that prevented the White House from giving her a run.
“She worked as a spy for America’s National Security Agency and that probably explains why the Americans were so keen to grant her diplomatic immunity,” Mr Stephens said.
2020 saw a shift in the tone of leadership change in the US.
US President Joe Biden said he was “actively engaged” in the case and in November this year Sakulas pleaded guilty via video link to a lesser charge of careless driving.
Despite the Dunn family’s wish for Sarculas to face court, he did not return to the UK for the sentencing hearing on Thursday.
The judge handed down an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, which means Sarkoulas will only face jail if he commits another offense in Britain next year.
“Annie Sakulas has a criminal record for the rest of her life,” Harry’s mother said outside court.
“It was something she never thought she would see, something the US government never thought they would see.
“Harry, we did it. We’re good, we’re good.”
Should diplomatic immunity be abolished?
Under current arrangements, a person’s level of immunity depends on rank and “ranges from criminal and civil and administrative jurisdiction to immunity for official acts only,” according to the Crown Prosecution Office.
Harry Dunn’s death led to a review of immunity agreements in Britain.
As a result, the families of American staff working at RAF Crowton will no longer be protected by diplomatic immunity for “acts outside their official duties”.
Mr Stephens says the rules around diplomatic immunity need to be changed more broadly.
“The structure of diplomatic immunity dates back to the days when people were professional … people behaved with decency and propriety,” Mr Stephens told the ABC.
“It’s clear that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Mr Stephens also said that in previous decades, the arrangement was “restricted to a very small number of people”.
According to the BBC, there are currently around 23,000 individuals in the UK with diplomatic immunity.
Diplomatic immunity was created to protect diplomats and their families from hostile regimes but is now used in cases of modern slavery, murder, and family desertion.
“I don’t think the public around the world is going to tolerate immunity given to absolute wrongdoing with no accountability,” Mr Stephens said.
“… there has to be a level of accountability where people commit crimes that they would otherwise be charged with.”
Dr Pert agrees that the way diplomatic immunity is enforced can be problematic, but says changing the rules will be difficult.
“To fix this we have to amend the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which has been in place for almost 60 years,” she said.
“… we can’t [change the rules] Without a full-blown conference of 194 countries meeting to amend it. Some will say, ‘Yes, it should be improved’, but that will be very difficult to do.”
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