Diplomatic Immunity

Immunity extended to diplomat officers from criminal and civil jurisdiction of their host state.

Immunity extended to diplomats from criminal and civil jurisdiction of their host state.

Extracts from the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations:

¶41(1). Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.

¶43. Consular officers and consular employees shall not be amenable to the jurisdiction of the judicial or administrative authorities of the receiving State in respect of acts performed in the exercise of consular functions (except), in respect of a civil action either arising out of a contract concluded by a consular officer or a consular employee in which he did not contract expressly or impliedly as an agent of the sending State; or by a third party for damage arising from an accident in the receiving State caused by a vehicle, vessel or aircraft.