Saudi diplomat engages in high speed chase, rams police car with SUV

I guess the Saudis haven’t heard of hybrids yet. From CTV News

Diplomat status gets Saudi crash suspect out of jail

saudi-police-crash

Updated Tue. Jun. 2 2009 10:11 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A man who allegedly led Ottawa police on a high-speed chase in an SUV and then collided head-on with a police cruiser was released from custody after he claimed diplomatic immunity, officers say.

While the suspect’s identity has been kept secret since the crash early Tuesday, CTV News has learned the man is a 30-year-old foreign envoy from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s embassy hasn’t confirmed nor denied that information. Staff at the embassy have also refused to speak on the record about the alleged link.

The unnamed SUV driver wasn’t hurt in the crash, but the officer behind the wheel of the police cruiser suffered minor injuries.

Neither local police nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will release any information about the suspect.

When asked about the incident, Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, cited privacy issues and referred all questions to local police.

A statement from Cannon’s office confirmed “that a person with diplomatic status faces criminal charges in connection with an incident of dangerous driving.”

The statement said there was no indication that alcohol was involved and that Ottawa will push for charges to be laid in a Canadian court.

“The Department will request that the individual’s government waive the appropriate immunities in order for any charges to be heard in a Canadian court.”

But NDP MP Paul Dewar said that response isn’t good enough and said the suspect’s name would be released “if a police cruiser was hit by anyone else.”

While Ottawa police say they are working with the Crown Attorney and the Department of Foreign Affairs to “pursue appropriate charges,” diplomatic immunity could allow the suspect to sidestep Canada’s justice system.

According to Liberal MP Dan McTeague, pursuing criminal charges against foreign diplomats isn’t a simple matter.

“They are not subject to the laws of the country,” he said. “They can’t be prosecuted, so it really becomes a matter between state to state.”

About 5,000 embassy workers currently have diplomatic immunity in Ottawa, and Tuesday’s crash is raising fresh questions about the practice.

This year, there have been three cases involving diplomatic immunity, including allegations of shoplifting and a suspected domestic dispute.

Last year, there were 14 incidents, including two allegations of drunk driving.

Perhaps Canada’s most infamous case of diplomatic immunity occurred in 2001, when an impaired Russian diplomat got behind the wheel of a car and struck Ottawa lawyer Catherine MacLean.

MacLean was killed and the Russian diplomat was shipped home.

However, diplomatic pressure from Canada led to a trial and conviction in Russia.

With reports from CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife and The Canadian Press

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

11 Replies to “Saudi diplomat engages in high speed chase, rams police car with SUV”

  1. Remove diplomatic immunity! “when in rome”….

    If a Canadian or US citizen with “diplomatic immunity” were to have done the same crime in Saudi Arabia, do you think they would have been treated this way?

  2. I think the US diplomats who spent over 400 days in captivity in the US embassy in Theran would think you don’t get immunity even when you do nothing wrong. Muslims think rules are for other people. Not them.

  3. I think the US diplomats who spent over 400 days in captivity in the US embassy in Tehran would think you don’t get immunity even when you do nothing wrong. Muslims think rules are for other people. Not them.

  4. Driving responsibly and carefully, with the value of human lives in mind, like we infidels do, is certainly haram for those swines.

    Just look for videos of traffic in Cairo, Baghdad, Istanbul, Jeddah, Dhaka, Teheran… There’s got to be a fatwa somewhere, stating that if one displays the driving skills required from those who pass, say, tough American or Swiss driving tests, they’ll be sentenced to that imaginary mahoundian hell fire. And mahound-worshipers sure follow its guidelines when they’re allowed to get their dirty hoofs on Western soil, like this Saudi “diplomat.”

    But the worst part is to see our sackless authorities and politicians let them get away with their “halal driving” without little or no risk of having to face the consequences when they cause accidents. LARD Nazir Ahmed, that Porkistani UK “lord” given his job by Dhimmi Tony Blair, killed a man not too long ago by text-messaging while driving way above the speed limit (as most people do in his native Porkistan), and got off the hook practically scot free.

    While diplomatic immunity might be claimed as a reason not to have that Saudi dirtbag be held accountable for his reckless driving, we’ve seen way too many examples of how, in other situations, laws are bent or not enforced at all in order to appease or avoid offending mahoundians. A couple of weeks ago I even read that laws against domestic violence are NO LONGER strictly enforced in Manchester, UK, due to political correctness.

    Politicians who are not committed to putting an end to such outrages, committed in the name of making mahoundians’ lives as good as possible in the civilized world of Dar al-Harb, should never be elected or reelected for any political office. If the consequences of not enforcing laws per se weren’t already bad enough for the job of keeping the order in any civilized society, not enforcing them for the sake of appeasing 7th-Century mahoundian scumbags just adds insult to injury.

  5. The Saudi Embassy and its educational office in Ottawa includes the worest staff in the earth. Stupid, sick, and they manage their work with emotions. I know friend of mind who work in a school and he told me they use their money power to threat all Candaian schools. They have no manner and Canada should send them and their students back to their country.

  6. All people do mistake, but obviously, some people like Dina and her friend just jealous from Saudi people.

  7. no just coz he is a saudi means he should have different rules forced on him…. if the canadian law says they have immunity then they do regardless of your pointless and empty-headed opinions…. instead of blaming hi why not blame ur own rusty laws lool…
    u have millions of similar cases in ur boring country why is this one different, umm just coz hes saudi no sorry doesnt make sense at all you canadian douchbags 😀

  8. All countries are sick of ”embassy” A-holes commiting crimes in their country and then crying diplomatic immunity. It should not exist, no one is exempt from the laws of the country you are in. And ‘I didn’t know” is not an acceptable defence either.