How diplomats tried to dodge ‘gang-rape’, killings and vicious beating charges by crying immunity, just like Anne Sacoolas
AMERICAN spy's wife Anne Sacoolas sparked a fierce debate over diplomatic immunity this week after she fled the UK following a horror hit-and-run that killed a British teen.
But the 42-year-old is not the first person to have cried "immunity" to get out of trouble - with others using this legal right to swerve murder, rape and assault claims and multi-million-pound divorce payouts.
In Britain, around 20,000 registered diplomats and their families have diplomatic immunity to enable them to do their jobs in this country safely and without harassment.
Under this form of legal immunity, they are protected from prosecution anywhere in the UK - and likewise, British diplomats working abroad are immune in the foreign state.
"Diplomatic immunity is being abused - it's a scandal"
This protection dates back centuries and is crucial to international relations, yet experts say it's being routinely "abused" by some to get away with crimes as well as protect their fortune in divorce settlements.
"This is a scandal," human rights lawyer Mark Stephens tells Sun Online. "[Evading the law] is not what they were given diplomatic immunity for - it was to enable them to do their job."
Here, as 19-year-old hit-and-run victim Harry Dunn's family plead for the mum of two to return to the UK, we look at other controversial cases where diplomatic immunity has been claimed...
The drunk diplomat who killed a teen girl
Republic of Georgia diplomat Gueorgui Makharadze claimed diplomatic immunity after causing a five-car pile-up in Washington DC that killed a teenage girl and injured four others.
Makharadze, then number two at his country's embassy in the US capital, ploughed his Ford into a row of vehicles in January 1997, crushing and killing 16-year-old Joviane Waltrick.
Cops said he was drunk and driving at 90mph at the time.
Initially, the law couldn't touch Makharadze due to his diplomatic status. But, with a "heavy heart", his home nation decided to waive his immunity so he could face justice in America's courts.
Makharadze was jailed for seven years after admitting involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The Wimbledon legend battling bankruptcy case
Even celebrities have claimed diplomatic immunity to try to get out of trouble.
Last year, Wimbledon legend Boris Becker did just this when faced with an attempt to sue him - claiming he had legal protection due to his role as a Central African Republic (CAR) diplomat .
The German former tennis champion was being pursued for "further assets" after being declared bankrupt in 2017 over money owed to private bank Arbuthnot Latham, the .
But he cited his recent appointment by the CAR - an impoverished nation - as a sport and culture attache to the EU, claiming it gave him immunity in the bankruptcy proceedings.
He later abandoned the defence, for unclear reasons.
The billionaire who didn't want to pay for wife's handbag obsession
When Sheikh Walid Juffali's supermodel ex-wife made a claim on his £4 billion fortune in a high-profile divorce battle, he used his diplomatic position with a Caribbean island to try to stop her.
The Saudi businessman's former wife Christina Estrada - once a Pirelli calendar girl - reportedly demanded more than £200 million.
She is also said to have wanted £116,000 a year for handbags and £83,000 for cocktail dresses.
But her ex-husband claimed in the UK's courts that he had diplomatic immunity - based on his appointment as Saint Lucia's permanent representative to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
A judge at the High Court wasn't convinced, though.
Mr Justice Hayden ruled Dr Juffali's immunity claim was "spurious", that there was no evidence he was a maritime expert, and that he'd secured the posting solely to avoid the divorce suit.
Dr Juffali, 61, died from lung cancer in 2016 - just weeks after Christina was awarded a £75million settlement, but before he'd paid her it. Three years on, it's unclear whether she's received the sum...
The twins who 'tried to murder teen'
In 2016, the 17-year-old twin sons of Iraq's ambassador to Portugal after they allegedly beat another teen to a pulp in a bar brawl, leaving him in a coma with a fractured skull.
Despite 15-year-old Rubén Cavaco's severe injuries, Haider Ali and Ridha Ali were immediately released by Portuguese cops due to diplomatic immunity that covered them as well as their dad.
The siblings later left the host nation and Iraq withdrew their father, Saad Mohammed Ali, from Lisbon. The diplomat is said to have reached an out-of-court settlement with Rubén's family.
Haider and Ridha's whereabouts are currently unknown - but last year, Portuguese prosecutors charged them with Rubén's attempted murder after Iraq repeatedly refused to lift their immunity.
In reality, the pair are unlikely to ever face trial in the country.
Mega-rich 'buying diplomat passports for privileges'
According to human rights lawyer Mark, the abuse of diplomatic immunity has become so prevalent that some of the mega-rich are now turning to elite law firms to help them acquire it so they can get out of trouble.
"I think we have expanded immunity way too far. Too many people have immunity," the lawyer tells us.
"There's a thriving trade where you can... get a diplomatic passport to avoid liability."
These passports, reportedly ranging from hundreds of thousands of pounds to up to £2million, allow their holders to claim privileges as 'diplomats'of small countries and island nations they might never have visited.
The ex-IMF chief who tried to use "his own Hail Mary pass"
Ex-International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn cried "diplomatic immunity" in desperation when he was sued by a US hotel maid who claimed he sexually attacked her.
Strauss-Kahn, once a French presidential favourite, was accused in 2011 of forcing Nafissatou Diallo to perform oral sex on him and molesting her as she tried to clean his New York City hotel suite.
He denied attacking her and prosecutors later dropped all criminal charges against him amid concerns about Ms Diallo's "credibility". But by then, the maid had already launched a civil suit.
Strauss-Kahn tried to claim immunity to dismiss the case - but a judge rejected his attempt, saying he was trying to use it as "his own version of a Hail Mary pass", the reported.
The civil case was later settled out of court, for an undisclosed sum.
The sheikh wanted for 'racing Ferrari through Beverly Hills'
When Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani's luxury Ferrari was filmed racing a Porsche through the Hollywood neighbourhood of Beverly Hills, California, he claimed diplomatic immunity.
But before police could make the necessary checks, the 29-year-old sheikh - a member of Qatar's ruling family who has been dubbed the "patron sheikh" of drag racing - fled the US.
It was only later, after consulting the US State Department and the Qatari consulate in LA, that officials realised his claim of immunity was false, the reported.
At the time of the 2015 scandal, Sheikh al-Thani reportedly told officers he wasn't driving either the yellow Ferrari - valued at more than £1million - or the Porsche 911 GT3 captured in the footage.
12 'serious and significant' UK cases in a year
LAST December, the Foreign Office revealed 12 "serious and significant" offences had been allegedly committed by people entitled to diplomatic immunity in the UK in just a year.
These reported crimes included rape, sexual assault, blackmail and possession of a firearm with intent to injure, according to the department. Five of them were driving-related.
One diplomat was expelled from Britain after being accused of rape and attempted rape in 2017. The UK had requested that the diplomat's immunity be waived, but the foreign state had refused to do so.
The Foreign Office said in an online release that it "does not tolerate foreign diplomats breaking the law".
Saudi diplomat who 'held captive and raped two maids'
A Saudi Arabian diplomat accused of holding captive and repeatedly raping two Nepali maids at his luxury home in India was able to flee the country under diplomatic immunity.
In a series of horrifying claims, the women alleged they were held against their will, denied food, brutally beaten and gang-raped by up to eight men at a time inside the apartment.
The pair, who were rescued after a tip-off to police, had worked for the diplomat's family in Saudi Arabia after being recruited as domestic servants by human traffickers, according to the .
When he was assigned to Delhi, he brought them with him.
Despite the women's shocking claims, the diplomat was allowed to leave India without facing prosecution due to his diplomatic privileges, sparking fury in both the country and in Nepal.
His own embassy strongly denied the "false" allegations.
Yet one of the women emotionally recalled: "They raped us, kept us locked up, did not give us anything to eat... When we tried to run away, we were beaten up."
The embassy shooting that killed a British cop
One of the most high-profile cases involving diplomatic immunity in Britain is the death of PC Yvonne Fletcher - who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London aged just 25.
PC Fletcher, of the Metropolitan Police, was policing an anti-Gaddafi demonstration when shots were fired from a first-floor embassy window in April 1984. She died in hospital soon after.
After an 11-day siege, during which armed police surrounded the embassy, all Libyan diplomats left the building and were given diplomatic immunity. They were swiftly deported.
In the wake of the horror, diplomatic links with Libya were brought to an immediate end.
Although the Libyan government later accepted "general responsibility" for the shooting and offered compensation to PC Fletcher's family, no one has been convicted over her murder.
The mystery murder of ambassador's wife
In one of the most shocking cases of diplomatic immunity, a Burmese diplomat suspected over his wife's killing avoided prosecution - because they were in Sri Lanka at the time.
Ambassador Sao Boonwaat reportedly confronted his spouse Shirley after discovering she was having an affair, with locals reporting hearing a series of gunshots from his residence.
Just hours later, Shirley was dead and her body was being cremated in a private Buddhist ceremony.
Although Boonwaat was initially arrested over the 1967 horror, he was released after invoking his immunity. He never faced a trial and later returned to Burma, leaving behind an unsolved murder mystery.
