British authorities on Friday charged the wife of a US diplomat who left the country after being involved in a traffic accident that killed a teenager.
The case of Anna Sacoolas has been a thorn in London’s close relations with Washington, stirring up debates over the limits of diplomatic immunity in cases unrelated to national security.
It has been a political headache for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is cultivating trade relations with Washington in a bid to offset the potential damage of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
The US Department of State said it was “disappointed” by Friday’s development, reasserting that in Washington’s view Sacoolas enjoys diplomatic immunity in the case.
Briton Harry Dunn, 19, died on Aug. 27 when his motorbike and a car driving on the wrong side of the road collided near an airbase in Northamptonshire, England, which is used by the US military as a communications hub.
Sacoolas in October admitted to being the driver, but has cited immunity while refusing to return to the UK to face justice, as Dunn’s parents demand.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it has authorized police in Northamptonshire to charge Sacoolas in absentia with causing death by dangerous driving.
“The criminal proceedings against Anne Sacoolas are now active and ... she has a right to a fair trial,” Chief Prosecutor Janine Smith said in a statement.
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab called the charges “an important step” that should prompt Sacoolas to return to the UK.
“I hope that Anne Sacoolas will now realize the right thing to do is to come back to the UK and cooperate with the criminal justice process,” Raab said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump has called the crash a “terrible accident,” saying it was common for Americans in the UK to have a hard time driving on the left side of the road.
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