• Sons of Iraqi ambassador to Portugal beat 15yr old into coma, cannot be charged because of immunity
    54 replies, posted
[quote]The 17-year-old sons of Iraq’s ambassador to Portugal were in police custody yesterday after a horrific attack on a 15-year-old boy in Ponte de Sôr, in the Alentejo. The young Portuguese, named today only as Rúben, has been placed in an induced coma in Lisbon’s Santa Maria hospital in a “grave condition”. Contacted by Lusa news agency, the hospital has declined to give details as the youngster is a minor. Witnesses, however, have told journalists that he was unrecogniseable after being kicked and beaten. He is also believed to have been run-over by a car registered to the Iraqi embassy. News reports suggest “the next 48 to 72 hours will be crucial” as the boy’s prognosis is “very reserved”. He has already been operated for ‘facial lesions’, but the “most worrying” injury is that to his head. National tabloid Correio da Manhã is calling it “brain trauma”, and this far, CM is the only paper who has identified the alleged aggressors, carrying a large photograph of them in the back of a car.[/quote] [quote]CM suggests one of the brothers ran into Ruben, while the other set upon him, punching and kicking him as he lay on the ground. A friend of the injured boy has told the paper: “We only knew it was Ruben from the watch and his trainers. It was just a pool of blood.”[/quote] [quote]UPDATE: In the briefest of updates, Lusa has revealed that the twin boys "have diplomatic immunity". They may have been in police custody yesterday, but it seems certain that they will have been subsequently released.[/quote] [url]http://portugalresident.com/twin-sons-of-portugal%E2%80%99s-iraqi-ambassador-arrested-as-15-year-old-fights-for-life-in-coma[/url] Additional portugese sources: [url]http://expresso.sapo.pt/sociedade/2016-08-18-Suspeitos-de-agressao-a-jovem-em-Ponte-de-Sor-tem-imunidade-diplomatica-1[/url] [url]https://www.publico.pt/sociedade/noticia/porque-tem-imunidade-podem-andar-a-espancar-pessoas-e-a-conduzir-embriagados-1741761[/url]
Motherfuckers,thinking they are all high and mighty because of their father.I hope they stay in prison for a long time.
[QUOTE=Sgt.Kickass;50912360]Motherfuckers,thinking they are all high and mighty because of their father.I hope they stay in prison for a long time.[/QUOTE] They're not going to see any consequences for their actions, as it stands right now
Diplomatic immunity was meant to protect diplomats' religious rights, etc. Not to be abused like this. When invoked, it should come with severe consequences, like cutting ties between the countries or firing the ambassador. That would discourage it from being abused.
[QUOTE=Perrine;50912363]They're not going to see any consequences for their actions, as it stands right now[/QUOTE] Words cannot express how incredibly fucking angry I am at that UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT.
And sadly, unless the home country waives their immunity or itself opens up proceedings against them (extremely unlikely imo) they'll get off scot free from this.
[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;50912369]Words cannot express how incredibly fucking angry I am at that UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT.[/QUOTE] Sadly, this is the way of the world; those with power and money make the rules to their own convenience. This will always be the case no matter what; while occasionally the powerful will overreach themselves and fall far, in the majority of instances it just serves as a backdrop that life's unfair to us all.
[QUOTE=Zang-Pog;50912373]What in the fuck? So if your father has diplomatic immunity you can just beat somebody into coma and get away with nothing? What kind of shit is this and why aren't these two fuck heads getting thrown into prison ASAP[/QUOTE] The most Portugal can do is declare their father a persona non grata and kick him out of the country
Why is diplomatic immunity a thing anyway, all it seems to be used for is getting away with shit like this.
[QUOTE=GoldenDargon;50912388]Why is diplomatic immunity a thing anyway, all it seems to be used for is getting away with shit like this.[/QUOTE] something necessary to have even the most basic discourse between countries: don't shoot the messenger, no matter what it's sad that shit like that happens and no one can get prosecuted but diplomatic immunity isn't something we can really do away with
Call me pessimist, but I think nothing will happen, Portugal will probably not risk to hurt their relations with Iraq over that incident.
Okay that's the second article today talking about people getting away with shit because diplomatic immunity. Why is this even a thing. In what world does being from another country put you above the law.
[QUOTE=Fapplejack;50912430]In what world does being from another country put you above the law.[/QUOTE] the political world, it seems
Jesus, what could justify these two assholes ganging up on a 15 year old kid and doing permanent damage to him/nearly killing him like this? And diplomatic immunity doesn't automatically mean people will give a damn, I imagine there's going to be a few angry people who would be more than willing to cause harm to these two in retaliatory acts. It'd probably be in Iraq's best interests to waive said immunity given it's already in a tenuous position on the world stage.
It may be a knee-jerk reaction. But part of me, sorry, no. -Most of me, want's somebody, or something, to happen to these bastards. If I was the leader of a country and something like this happened, with people across the world hearing of it, I'd do -anything- to see these men trialed. Even still, I'd love to read the news tomorrow and hear these two got the piss beaten out of them during their brief time in jail. /Violencefantasy
I hope an "accident" happens.
If the Iraqi Government had any guts, it would say they should say the duo should face charges in Portugal and waive their immunity.
Surely the Portuguese can just imprison them anyway and fuck the diplomatic immunity in this case?
[QUOTE=Buck.;50912485]Surely the Portuguese can just imprison them anyway and fuck the diplomatic immunity in this case?[/QUOTE] They wouldn't want to do that, as then what is stopping Iraq from treating the same treaty with such disdain and imprisoning a Portuguese diplomat?
Portugal still reserves the right to expel the diplomat and his son from the country. Diplomatic immunity just means "foreign diplomats can't be arrested under the laws of the country they're being ambassadors in." Without it, people like Assange would've been arrested eons ago. It's a very important concept, otherwise Saudi Arabia could just walk into our embassy and arrest our ambassador for whatever """crimes""" they committed under Saudi law and that'd be the last we'd see of them. You need diplomatic immunity for ambassadors. Portugal can kick this guy out, and if they're pissed enough, they could close their diplomatic relations with Iraq and remove their embassy/remove Iraq's embassy, but that would be a huge (controversial) step. But Portugal will almost definitely expel this kid from the country, and likely the whole family.
If I were in their situation I would probably prefer some sort of legal punishment rather than walking free and being jumped by an angry mob who demands justice.
If they don't let them face charges, they may expel the diplomat. The last thing they would want to do before working out if they can prosecute is to force those that did the crime to leave the country without punishment.
[QUOTE=Buck.;50912485]Surely the Portuguese can just imprison them anyway and fuck the diplomatic immunity in this case?[/QUOTE] In 1984, a cop was killed by someone shooting a gun out of the Libyan embassy in the UK. The UK besieged the Libyan embassy for 11 days straight. After that, the shooter was expelled from the country and the entire diplomatic staff of the embassy were sent back to Libya, and then the UK ceased all diplomatic relations with Libya and closed their embassies down. But [I]they didn't arrest the shooter[/I], and they definitely didn't try the shooter under UK law. You don't do that. The Libyan embassy is representative of the Libyan government, and if their actions are blatant crimes, they implicate [i]the entire government of the country they're representing[/i]. If they send this kid and his family back to Iraq, which they'll almost certainly do, Iraq would almost definitely jail the kid and strip the father of his diplomatic career. They'll get punished somehow - just not under Portuguese law, which would be blatantly illegal under international law.
[QUOTE=.Isak.;50912544]If they send this kid and his family back to Iraq, which they'll almost certainly do, Iraq would almost definitely jail the kid and strip the father of his diplomatic career. They'll get punished somehow - just not under Portuguese law, which would be blatantly illegal under international law.[/QUOTE] I think you're wrong that Iraq would punish the sons. They've done nothing wrong under Iraqi law because the incident didn't happen there.
Iraq can revoke the diplomatic immunity of the sons and allow Portugal to charge them with the crimes. Will Iraq do that? I don't know. But most sane countries do to avoid diplomatic issues that would result from such an incident.
Wow I thought Diplomatic Immunity was just to keep them from being taken as political prisoners or bothered by parking tickets. I didn't know DI covered attempted murder, and possibly actual murder. Who's fuckin' idea was that?
One of his sons has been expelled from school [url]http://www.jn.pt/justica/interior/filho-de-embaixador-do-iraque-expulso-da-escola-de-aeronautica-de-ponte-de-sor-5345873.html[/url]
Pack them back to Iraq, send them to boot camp and then with the regulars for a tour, and see how they try to put their diplomatic inmunity to good use.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;50912615]Wow I thought Diplomatic Immunity was just to keep them from being taken as political prisoners or bothered by parking tickets. I didn't know DI covered attempted murder, and possibly actual murder. Who's fuckin' idea was that?[/QUOTE] Because you could accuse foreign diplomats of whatever crimes you want and arrest them if the immunity laws didn't cover everything
Why does diplomatic immunity apply to families of the diplomats in the first place?
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