Couple had multiple driving convictions
THE woman involved in the fatal crash and her diplomat husband have a string of driving convictions in the US, it emerged yesterday.
Anne Sacoolas was fined after being found guilty of ‘failure to pay full time and attention’ in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2006. She was also convicted of ‘disregarding’ a railroad signal in South Carolina in 1997, according to court filings.
Jonathan Sacoolas was fined for ‘failure to obey a highway sign’ in Fairfax in April 2013.
Other records show he was found guilty of ‘reckless’ driving and speeding at 92mph in a 65mph zone in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 2000. The details were revealed as the US was accused of hypocrisy last night after it emerged its own handbook on foreign diplomats living in America makes it clear that it does not believe immunity extends to those committing ‘serious or repeat driving offences’. The US Embassy in London has refused repeated requests to waive Mrs Sacoolas’s immunity.
It is understood that the US fears if it caves in, it will set a dangerous precedent for its diplomats in other countries.
But official guidance for American police forces and the judiciary states that foreign diplomats who violate traffic laws should be prosecuted. It says: ‘Foreign diplomats who violate traffic laws should be cited.
‘Allegations of serious crimes should be fully investigated, promptly reported to the US Department of State, and procedurally developed to the maximum permissible extent.’ It adds: ‘Diplomatic immunity is not intended to serve as a licence for persons to flout the law and purposely avoid liability for their actions.’
The US refusal to grant a waiver in Mrs Sacoolas’s case raises questions over why it was so keen to protect the identity of her husband. Mr Sacoolas, who is originally from Oregon, is thought to work in signals intelligence at RAF Croughton.
The base houses a CIA hub which passes on raw intelligence to spy chiefs in the US. It is the most valuable US intelligence base in Europe. Mr Sacoolas, who was listed as being employed by the US Department of Defence in 2003, successfully applied for a radio licence four years later.
The licence was for ‘non-commercial use’, meaning Mr Sacoolas needed it so he could transmit and receive information on a powerful two-way radio, either at his home, office, on a ship or aircraft.
Mrs Sacoolas was also employed by the State Department in Washington DC before moving to the UK. The couple married in 2003. Mr Sacoolas has a degree in electronic engineering from the University of Southern California.
Before travelling to the UK, the Sacoolases lived in an £800,000 house in the small upmarket town of Vienna in Virginia.
Most of the neighbours are diplomats or high-ranking civil servants. The homes are within easy each of the CIA headquarters in Langley and the centre of Washington DC.
Yesterday international lawyer Mark Stephens told Sky News Mr Sacoolas was not on the published list of accredited diplomats in the UK.
But UK Government sources said both he and his wife have diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention due to an agreement dating back to 1994 which extends rights to staff based at RAF Croughton.