The Worst Crimes Committed By Diplomats

On April 17, 1984, a 25-year-old British policewoman named Yvonne Fletcher was shot to death on the streets of London, per the BBC. The basic facts of the case are — and were, even at the time — quite well understood: The shots had been fired from a window of the Libyan embassy. They came from a pair of Sterling submachine guns wielded by agents of the government of Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The shooters were aiming at a throng of anti-Gaddafi protestors who had congregated around the embassy. And in addition to the slain Fletcher, who had been dispatched to the location to help keep the peace during the protests against the dictatorial Colonel Gaddafi, many other people were also injured by the spray of bullets. And at least one of the men who either pulled one of the triggers or else was at least actively supporting the shooters was known to authorities: a man named Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk.

But because the deadly fusillade came from within an embassy that was effectively off-limits to British police, the shooters could not be arrested. And as they were quickly whisked off and taken back to Libya, they never would be. At least not for more than 30 years. In 2015, Mabrouk, who had returned to the U.K., was arrested for the killing of Yvonne Fletcher, but he was released again two years later, the case unable to proceed based on national security concerns.

In a truly disgusting case of diplomatic immunity shielding someone against prosecution for a crime totally unrelated to his or her official duties, a South Sudanese diplomat got away with a violent sexual assault committed against a woman in New York City. In the late summer of 2022, an allegedly drunken Charles Dickens Imene Oliha followed a woman down the street of a Bronx neighborhood and then forced himself into her apartment after her, per reporting from the Daily Mail. He then proceeded to rape the woman not once, but twice, before leaving the scene. The victim promptly reported the crime and the 46-year-old Oliha was arrested by New York City police officers no more than an hour later. But then, a day later, the married father of four was released after citing his status as a foreign diplomat. Worse still, Oliha then slipped out of America entirely, fleeing safely back to South Sudan.

The South Sudanese government released a statement saying that Oliha had been immediately recalled to South Sudan and suspended from his official duties, but that did nothing to get justice for the victim of his violent assault, as Oliha is almost sure to face no punishment in his home country and is unlikely to return to America, where he could indeed face prosecution and sentencing for his acts. Oliha had long been known as a public drunk and nuisance prior to the rape.  

When a package is marked with a diplomatic seal, it is supposed to be able to travel across international borders without its contents being disclosed and without risk of search or seizure. Perhaps the most famous example of a diplomatic seal being used is when Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from Europe by traveling anonymously in a sealed train, re-entering a nation from which he had been banned and helping foment the Russian Revolution, per The New Yorker. In practice, in more modern times, diplomatic seals are usually reserved for parcels containing official state documents, but there are notable exceptions — and at times quite questionable ones at that. One such example came in 2012 when a group of Ecuadorian diplomats attempted to ship 40 kilograms (or 88 pounds) of cocaine from Ecuador to Italy in Ecuador's official diplomatic pouch, per Foreign Policy.

The illegal drugs were found and seized by Italian authorities, who estimated their street value at the time would have been in the neighborhood of more than 2 million Euros. Multiple Ecuadorians were later arrested in connection to the attempted smuggling of the drugs, but it was unlikely that this one instance was an isolated event. Not long before the cocaine was discovered, Ecuador had begun to use what it called "extraordinary diplomatic pouches" that allowed for the transfer of larger objects than paperwork without the contents being reviewed. The cocaine at issue was found less than six months later.

A Qatari diplomat traveling on a commercial flight in the United States showed himself to be a model of selfishness, immaturity, and smugness when he broke multiple laws in a mere matter of minutes, thumbed his proverbial nose at authorities and America in general, and then departed the country scot-free thanks to his diplomatic status. Per the Austin American Statesman, in the early fall of the year 2012, Mohammed al-Madadi, a diplomat from Qatar, was on a flight bound for Denver when decided he wanted to have a smoke right away, no time to wait for landing. So he entered a lavatory on the plane and, against well-known federal law, he lit up his pipe. On exiting the smoky restroom, al-Madadi was confronted by air marshals, at which point he made a witless jest that he had been trying to light a shoe bomb on fire, referencing the so-called "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid whose actions in 2001 — when he tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes, per the FBI — changed the way we all have to pass through TSA security checkpoints ever since (via NPR).

The remarks prompted the scrambling of two F-16 fighter jets to escort the passenger plane to its destination, but upon arrival in Denver, whereas most people would have been arrested and in serious trouble, al-Madadi was released from the detention he had faced on the flight and he was soon on his way back to Qatar having faced no penalties.

Residents of an upscale London neighborhood were horrified when a sheep was slaughtered on the streets of their suburban borough and then cooked over an open flame in the backyard of a local residence. The incident took place in September of the year 1984, per UPI, and it involved several members of an Iranian diplomatic mission, Iran then being just a half decade into its post-revolution, post-Shah regime days. As neighbors later reported, several Iranian diplomats dragged a sheep out onto the streets of the quiet suburban neighborhood and then one slashed its throat using a ceremonial sword. After the animal bled out in full view of the public, they brought it into the yard of a diplomat's residence where they cooked the sheep over an open fire, sending pungent smoke wafting over nearby properties.

Local residents called the police to complain of the slaughter and cooking, which was tied to the Eid Al Fitr celebration ("Feast of the Slaughter") which traditionally marks the end of Ramadan, per Britannica, but when the Iranians invoked their rights of diplomatic immunity, the police left without charging the men with any crimes related to the inhumane act, though several had been committed.

On August 27, 2019, a young man named Harry Dunn was killed while riding his motorcycle on a road in Northamptonshire, England, per CBS News. The 19-year-old Englishman was killed by an American motorist, Anne Sacoolas, who was driving on the wrong side of the road when she struck him in a head-on collision. She was later charged with "causing death by dangerous driving," which in the United Kingdom usually comes with a prison sentence, but Sacoolas would never face a British court, having fled the U.K. just days after the deadly crash. How did she get away with it and run? 

Because as the wife of a CIA official then stationed in England, Anne Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity protected her, and, as per The Hill: "Diplomatic immunity protects family members of diplomats living in other countries from arrest." Thus her claim was backed up by the United States government, much to the chagrin of Dunn's family and many more back in the U.K. Then, per the Guardian, came an added layer: Not only was Sacoolas arguably protected by diplomatic immunity thanks to her husband's status, but she had been covertly working as an intelligence officer herself. But despite the fact that Sacoolas probably could have avoided the tragedy indefinitely, in October 2022, she willingly pled guilty to a charge of "death by careless driving" before a British court and, at the time of this writing, she awaits sentencing, though she has not yet traveled to the U.K. to do so, having made her plea by remote video, per the BBC.