The State Department reportedly said this weekend that the Trump administration will not extradite a U.S. diplomat’s wife who was involved in a car crash that killed a British teenager.
The State Department called the U.K. government’s request “highly inappropriate” due to the diplomatic immunity claimed by Anne Sacoolas, who fled the U.K. after the crash last August, according to The New York Times.
Extraditing “an individual under these circumstances would be an abuse,” the State Department said, the Times noted.
Harry Dunn, 19, was killed after Sacoolas allegedly struck his motorcycle while driving on the wrong side of the road. His family has appeared on British and U.S. media outlets multiple times to attract attention to their son’s death.
Sacoolas’s lawyer told the Times that she would continue seeking “a path forward” with U.K. authorities and Dunn’s family.
“Anne is devastated by this tragic accident and would do anything she could to bring Harry back,” her lawyer said in a statement.
Radd Seiger, a spokesman for Dunn’s family, blasted the State Department’s announcement but cautioned that anything from the Trump administration should be taken “with a pinch of salt.”
“Despite the unwelcome public comments currently emanating from the U.S. administration that Anne Sacoolas will never be returned, Harry’s parents, as victims, will simply look forward to the legal process unfolding, as it must now do confident in the knowledge that the rule of law will be upheld,” Seiger said in a statement, according to the Times.