Since the golden age of Greece political envoys and diplomats have always enjoyed special rights of diplomatic immunity. In ancient times threatening or harming an envoy was considered a serious affront to the gods, a sacrilegious act that often resulted in the declaration of war. Envoys, ambassadors and diplomats have historically always been granted safe passage and immunity, but there are occasional examples throughout history where these rights have either been misused or ignored.
Invoking diplomatic immunity and the ramifications of its use has always been tricky subject; take the recent case of a Saudi princess as a prime example. Maha al-Sudairi, wife of Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz recently ran up a $24 million dollar shopping bill and refused to pay. The princess appears to have been a good customer until one day she just stopped paying her tab. The princess is alleged to have spent over $90,000 on lingerie at the O Caprices De Lili store in Paris. When various Parisian clothing outlets decided to call in the debt they found that princess Maha had locked herself in her $4,114 suite at the George V Hotel in Paris and refused to come out. Due to the princesses’ royalty and diplomatic immunity the debtors were unable to press any form of charges. After repeated enquires a member of the Saudi diplomatic core arrived at the hotel and dealt with most of the outstanding debts.
Diplomats often get themselves into trouble. In 2002 Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg threatened to tow away any illegally parked consular vehicles because the U.N had refused to pay a number of outstanding parking violation fines. The total number of fines is believed to have been in the region of 18 million dollars. Things almost came to a head until the then secretary of state Colin Powell stepped in and organised a compromise, otherwise the mayor might have gone down the Lethal Weapon route…..
Recent Comments