Nicolaki From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (11 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1260 times:
Ex-Russian diplomat charged in Ottawa crash
Last Updated: Sat Nov 10 18:32:54 2001
OTTAWA - A former Russian diplomat accused of being drunk when he mowed down two pedestrians in Canada last winter will be prosecuted in his home country, police confirmed Saturday.
Andrei Knyazev, 46, lost control of his car on Jan. 27, according to investigators, and struck two women on a sidewalk in Ottawa. One victim was killed, and the other was left seriously injured.
Knyazev refused to provide a sample of his breath, and Canada was unable to persuade Moscow to waive diplomatic immunity in the case. He returned to Russia within days, and was then fired from the foreign service.
Russian detectives spent 10 months investigating the crash, flying to Ottawa twice at Canadian taxpayers' expense. They interviewed witnesses, family members, and examined the crime scene and car.
Knyazev, once Russia's third-ranking diplomat in Canada, has been charged with negligence and causing death. No trial date has been set.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as suspended driving privileges for three years. In Canada, impaired driving causing death carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Knyazev had been accused of impaired driving in Canada before the fatal accident, but was never charged because he exercised diplomatic immunity. The federal government later admitted that was a mistake.
In March, Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley announced tougher rules governing diplomats. From now on, he said, driving privileges will be revoked if Canadian police accuse embassy staff of drunk driving, even if formal charges have not been laid.
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Well I really hope that this moron get convicted, and I really wish that his diplomatic immunity could have been waived the day that this accident happened. Actually, I don't beleive in diplomatic immunity at all.
Delta-flyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 2676 posts, RR: 7 Reply 1, posted (11 years 7 months 2 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1256 times:
This happens all the time, diplomats getting drunk and injuring and killing people. At least now the Russians are acting more responsibly (as opposed to the Soviet era), by prosecuting them.
Canada should have expelled Knyazev after the first incident, before anyone was hurt. They had every right to do that.
I believe in diplomatic immunity only because it protects our diplomats overseas from biased and flawed laws that abound in some foreign countries.
ADG From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (11 years 7 months 2 weeks ago) and read 1252 times:
Diplomatic Immunity should never occur. When entering a country other than your own you need to make yourselves totally aware of the laws, draconian or as bad as they may be.
I think it's every diplomats responsibility to respect the laws of the country they are in, and that if they breach the laws, they end up paying the price.
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