Harry Dunn death: Johnson and Biden discuss virtual trial for US diplomat's wife

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Idea being pursued by Dominic Raab might allow Anne Sacoolas to face punishment in US



Harry Dunn was killed when a car crashed into his motorbike in August 2019. Photograph: Family Handout/PA

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Sat 12 Jun 2021 06.00 EDT

Britain is pressing for the wife of a US diplomat to go on virtual trial over the death of Harry Dunn, who was killed when a car crashed into his motorbike outside a US military base in Northamptonshire two years ago.

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, is pursuing the idea of a virtual trial, which would possibly allow Anne Sacoolas to face some form of punishment in the US rather than being extradited back to the UK. The solution was proposed at a meeting on Thursday between the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the US president, Joe Biden.

Radd Seiger, the lawyer for Dunn’s family, greeted the proposal as a huge development

Raab referred to either a virtual trial or process, so it is not clear that the outcome would lead to Sacoolas facing a possible jail sentence in either the UK or the US, something she has resisted. She has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but the US embassy pleaded diplomatic immunity and took her and her family out of the UK days after the crash without informing Northamptonshire police.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/12/harry-dunn-death-johnson-and-biden-discuss-virtual-trial-for-alleged-killer#_=_

[tanyev]

1. Very different from the surprise meeting in front of cameras the previous guy tried to pull off.

Thank goodness.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said he thought the grieving parents of a British teenager who was killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat's wife wanted to meet with the woman during a White House visit. But Harry Dunn's parents said they were stunned by the surprise proposition.

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn traveled to Washington on Tuesday seeking to have the woman's diplomatic immunity lifted. Instead, Trump and national security adviser Robert O'Brien surprised the family by inviting Anne Sacoolas to the White House and suggesting Dunn's parents meet with her in front of the White House press corps.

Attorney Mark Stephens said the couple had no idea Sacoolas would be in the building when they were there Tuesday and were stunned by the proposition. He said the couple wants to meet with Sacoolas at some point, but not in a surprise meeting staged for reporters.

"If there's going to be a meeting like that, it should not involve a surprise, a jack-in-the-box, pop-out-of-a-circus-tent meeting seven weeks after the loss," said Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who is a neighbor of the family and accompanied them to the White House. "For this to happen, you would want some heavy-duty therapy and you want to meet in a neutral environment."

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/oct/17/trump-s-meeting-offer-stuns-parents-of-/?news-national

Trump was using the presidency to produce 4 more years of a reality TV show.

[MerryHolidays]

5. This was a shocking moment of insensitivity

that made many of the other shocking moments of trump's insensitivity pale in comparison.

[twin_ghost]

2. No Attorney would allow their client to have a virtual trial.

[CloudWatcher]

3. Why?

I'll bite, seriously ... why not? Especially if the alternative is extradition?

[marble falls]

4. The US just hates to extradite native born citizens. Add CIA to the mix. I get CIA's concern ...

When in a European city, my wife needed oral surgery. A CIA employee with her clearance or above went along to sit in on the procedure.

However, she killed a kid and has never in any proceeding sworn her version of the event.

She was basically swept out of GB in a rush.

She needs to go back and face justice, the way anyone and I also would want if it were our child.