ISLAMABAD – The detention of double murder accused US national Raymond Davis is lawful as he is not entitled to diplomatic immunity while US Embassy is unlawfully trying to determine Raymond’s diplomatic status in the light of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, foreign affairs experts and officials told The Nation.
During a telephonic conversation with this newspaper on Saturday, former foreign secretary general and ex-senator Akram Zaki cited Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 to term the US spy’s detention as lawful. According to him, Vienna Convention 1963 granted immunity to the senior officials of diplomatic consulates in the line of their official duties. However, the diplomatic immunity is not applicable even if a senior official of a consulate commits a serious crime thus becoming liable to be arrested, said Akram Zaki. In addition, he added, the technical staff of a diplomatic consulate does not hold any diplomatic immunity from prosecution according to the Vienna Convention 1963. “There is nothing more heinous a crime than murder and Raymond has committed the same. He is a technical staff member of US Consulate and does not hold any immunity in the light of Vienna Convention 1963. Of course, his detention is lawful and he can be tried according to the Pakistani laws,” Zaki said while referring to the US Embassy’s press release issued on January 28 2011 that identified the double murder accused as a staff member of US Consulate General, Lahore.
Keeping aforementioned convention in view, it gets confirmed that the US spy is not immune from trial in Pakistan. However, on January 29 2011, the embassy, apparently in order to save the its national’s skin, backtracked from its statement and contended that Davis was a US diplomat ‘assigned to the US Embassy Islamabad.’
Via The Nation
