“A London-based Saudi diplomat accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl is claiming diplomatic immunity and so avoiding further investigation, police say. The Foreign Office said it has written to the Saudi ambassador, asking for the man’s immunity to be waived. ‘An allegation of indecent assault against an 11-year-old girl has been made but owing to diplomatic immunity we cannot take it any further at this stage,’ a Metropolitan Police spokesman said on Tuesday. ‘We can’t pursue the investigation at all without the agreement of the country involved.’ Newspapers reported the alleged assault took place last month at a party at the home of a diplomat working for another embassy… Saudi law gives judges considerable discretion and any punishment could range from flogging to imprisonment or the payment of compensation to the child’s family.” —Reuters (US)

In most places you don’t run into the concept of diplomatic immunity much. But here in New York — home to the United Nations and a thousand individual embassies — it’s part of the daily hassle. In particular, New Yorkers get ticked off about the way in which diplomatic immunity gives a bunch of arrogant foreigners the right to break the overbearing parking rules that are forced on the rest of us. Driving a car in New York is a nightmare, and parking it is even worse. Given the number of tickets cops hand out, you get the sense that there’s no such thing as a legal parking spot. But does that affect diplomats? Nope. They park with immunity at expired meters, fire hydrants, handicapped zones. Why? Because of an international agreement stating that diplomats do not fall under the criminal jurisdiction of the country in which they serve.

If you can set aside your rage at the third-world parking habits of the diplomatic community, you can see why such a law might make sense. It’s probably especially advantageous to people who come from liberal countries but serve in conservative ones. It enables them to maintain their lifestyle and their freedoms without fear of retribution from local authorities. Without such an agreement, who in their right mind would agree to go live in the more draconian places?

But it’s one thing to get away with violating traffic rules and another to get away with violating little girls. It’s absolutely outrageous to think a diplomat could have carte blanche to grope the local schoolgirls. Hell, if law enforcement there in London doesn’t figure out a way to get their hands on this pervy creep, there is going to be a sudden rush of applications for foreign service — and you know where these applications are going to come from: child molestors, pedophiles, aficionados of kiddie porn… How do you like the thought of being represented in the international community by a sex offender?

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