U.S. Embassy demands release of 'unlawfully detained' diplomat who shot 2 Pakistanis
By Karin Brulliard and Aoun Sahi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 29, 2011
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The U.S. Embassy here demanded the release on Saturday of an American diplomat who fatally shot two Pakistani men two days ago, saying he was being "unlawfully detained" by Pakistani authorities.
The statement was the first strong indication of the U.S. position on the case, and it signaled a deepening dispute between the United States and Pakistan over an incident that has roiled the public in this sternly anti-American nation.
The embassy said the diplomat, Raymond Allen Davis, shot the men in self-defense and had diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Police in the eastern city of Lahore, where the shooting occurred, and senior law enforcement authorities "failed to observe their legal obligation to verify his status," and Davis's continued detention represented a "violation of international norms" and the Vienna conventions, the statement said.
"The diplomat had every reason to believe that the armed men meant him bodily harm," the embassy statement said. "Minutes earlier, the two men, who had criminal backgrounds, had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area."
(More here.)
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 29, 2011
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The U.S. Embassy here demanded the release on Saturday of an American diplomat who fatally shot two Pakistani men two days ago, saying he was being "unlawfully detained" by Pakistani authorities.
The statement was the first strong indication of the U.S. position on the case, and it signaled a deepening dispute between the United States and Pakistan over an incident that has roiled the public in this sternly anti-American nation.
The embassy said the diplomat, Raymond Allen Davis, shot the men in self-defense and had diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Police in the eastern city of Lahore, where the shooting occurred, and senior law enforcement authorities "failed to observe their legal obligation to verify his status," and Davis's continued detention represented a "violation of international norms" and the Vienna conventions, the statement said.
"The diplomat had every reason to believe that the armed men meant him bodily harm," the embassy statement said. "Minutes earlier, the two men, who had criminal backgrounds, had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area."
(More here.)
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