Police still hunt for UN staffer despite his diplomatic immunity



PHNOM PENH: -- Cambodian police have been hunting for a Cambodian staffer of the United Nations office in Phnom Penh despite the Foreign Ministry’s announcement that the staffer has diplomatic immunity, according to Phnom Penh Post on Thursday.

The Post reported that the Foreign Ministry had sent a request to the court two weeks ago asking “competent authorities” to stop legal action against Soen Sally, the UN staffer.

However, Interior Ministry spokesman General Khieu Sopheak said that the court was yet to strike out Sally’s warrant which means that his men remain duty-bound to arrest the UN official “with or without immunity.”

Sopheak likened Sally’s case to that of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for years saying that Sally could live his whole life in the UN compound “but when he comes out, the police will arrest him.”

An official of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sally was charged together with six other individuals for allegedly conspiring to bribe the purported mistress of CNPP leader Kem Sokha in a case widely considered as politically motivated.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/163027


-- Thai PBS 2016-05-12

If the police drop him in the river at night I guess his immunity would be then null and void ?

The Foreign Ministry had sent a request to the court two weeks ago asking “competent authorities” to stop legal action against Soen Sally, the UN staffer.

That's your problem right there.

Edited May 12, 201610 yr by Lex Talionis

The rules of present day diplomatic immunity are found in the Vienna Convention. There is nothing in the treaty that prevents one's country of citizenship from prosecuting a citizen by the country's authorities.

Sally is described as a Cambodian staffer that infers seh is a Cambodian citizen. I don't believe a Cambodian can have diplomatic immunity within Cambodia.

The rules of present day diplomatic immunity are found in the Vienna Convention. There is nothing in the treaty that prevents one's country of citizenship from prosecuting a citizen by the country's authorities.

Sally is described as a Cambodian staffer that infers seh is a Cambodian citizen. I don't believe a Cambodian can have diplomatic immunity within Cambodia.

You'd be wrong. In fact, the CNRP politicians who are being arrested ALSO have immunity according to the constitution. The CPP just don't care about the actual laws, they're making it up as they go along.

The rules of present day diplomatic immunity are found in the Vienna Convention. There is nothing in the treaty that prevents one's country of citizenship from prosecuting a citizen by the country's authorities.

Sally is described as a Cambodian staffer that infers seh is a Cambodian citizen. I don't believe a Cambodian can have diplomatic immunity within Cambodia.

You'd be wrong. In fact, the CNRP politicians who are being arrested ALSO have immunity according to the constitution. The CPP just don't care about the actual laws, they're making it up as they go along.

The constitution provides for legislative immunity which is not the same as diplomatic immunity. Sally is not a member of parliament.