ISLAMABAD: A US diplomat, who killed a Pakistani motorcyclist in a road accident last month, has left the country amidst controversy over his immunity from prosecution. Defence attache Colonel Joseph Hall killed a motorbike rider and injured another on April 7, 2018 in Islamabad after jumping a red signal. A case was registered but he was never formally arrested due to diplomatic immunity.
The government reportedly took the decision after the US government assured that Colonel Hall will be tried under US laws, the diplomatic sources were quoted as saying. The diplomat has since left for Afghanistan on a special flight.
The US Embassy in Islamabad also confirmed that the US diplomat has left Pakistan, the report said. Diplomatic sources further confirmed that Colonel Hall was a US diplomat who held absolute immunity as per the Vienna Convention of 1972 and the privileges Pakistan extends to diplomats.
Relatives of the victims had asked the government to prosecute Colonel Hall for murder. The Islamabad High Court ruled that Hall's immunity was not absolute and ordered the government to add his name to the list that bars anyone from leaving Pakistan. Washington refused to withdraw the immunity of the diplomat but promised to hold him accountable under its domestic laws, the sources said. After the assurance, Hall was allowed to leave and apparently flew to Afghanistan initially to go to America, according to sources.
Earlier, Pakistan has barred the diplomat from leaving the country by preventing him from boarding a US military plane sent to bring him out of Islamabad, while the two sides are locked in a dispute over his diplomatic status. Hardline elements in Pakistan were insisting that Colonel Hall be prosecuted in Pakistan. The Trump administration appeared to have won a reprieve from the more moderate elements in Pakistan who are keen to repair the damage the dispute has caused, and a military transport plane was sent from Bagram air force base in Afghanistan to the Nur Khan air base outside Rawalpindi, to extricate Col Hall.
But word of the mission was leaked and the press ran amuck with wall-to-wall coverage of what was virtually a rescue effort. When Col Hall reached the airbase, he was refused permission to board the aircraft, ostensibly under instructions from hardline elements of the Pakistan establishment. The aircraft eventually returned to Bagram.
