PM in crisis talks as alert for Harry’s killer sparks fury in the US
BORIS JOHNSON and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab held crisis talks last week after a fresh diplomatic storm with the United States over the case of Harry Dunn, The Mail on Sunday has learnt.
The Downing Street meeting came after it emerged British law enforcement officers had put an international wanted notice on former CIA agent Anne Sacoolas, who has been charged with dangerous driving after killing the teenage motorcyclist and then fleeing Britain claiming diplomatic immunity.
The high level talks on Thursday were also attended by Home Secretary Priti Patel and Cabinet Secretary Si r Mark Sedwill a f t e r Washington ‘went berserk’ that they had not been told about the Interpol request to have Sacoolas arrested if she left the United States.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the order given, initially reported as a ‘Red Notice’ – the world’s most wanted status sent to all member states of the international crime fighting organisation – was actually a ‘Red Diffusion Notice’, that was only sent to certain countries, including Canada.
The US authorities, who are refusing to extradite Sacoolas back to
Britain to face justice, were deliberately not told about the plan in the hope she would leave the country and could be arrested and sent to face trial in Britain.
However, Northamptonshire Police are being blamed at the highest l evels of Government for revealing the secret ruse drawn up by the Crown Prosecution Service and ‘Britain’s FBI’, the National Crime Agency.
A law enforcement source said: ‘If she had slipped across the border for a Canadian holiday, we would have had her, but that’s blown now.’
Ministers and officials were caught off-guard after the notice was disclosed and were confronted by furious US counterparts, reigniti ng the bitter diplomatic spat regarding the case.
The Mail on Sunday has also l earnt t hat Northamptonshire Police were ‘pressured’ to put out a statement distancing themselves from the Red Notice leak, despite emailing Harry’s family with news of it last week. At Thursday’s meeting, the senior Ministers also discussed ending the legal loophole that allowed the United States government to insist that Sacoolas was above the law through her husband’s work as a diplomat at the US spy base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire.
A waiver for criminal immunity drawn up in the 1990s for staff working at the base did not specifically mention spouses, leading to US State Department lawyers to pounce on the loophole and spirit Sacoolas out of the country.
Mr Raab has called this an ‘anomaly’ and vowed to update all US treaties relating to Americans working in the UK.
Last night, Government sources said No 10 had taken ‘a renewed interest in the case’ in the light of revelations by The Mail on Sunday about the botched handling of Mr Dunn’s tragic death by the police and Foreign Office.
The meeting came just two weeks after Harry’s twin brother Niall wrote to Downing Street to demand that Mr Johnson ‘ get a grip’ on the issue.
The CPS said: ‘In December 2019, the CPS authorised Northamptons hi r e Pol i c e t o c harge Anne Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving. Our aim continues to be that Mrs Sacoolas stands trial in this country.
‘We will continue to do everything we can to seek to ensure that happens. We are unable, however, to give any explanation of what steps may or may not be taken, because to do so may compromise operational effectiveness.’