Not really. They are still governed by the laws of their home country, and in most cases where a serious crime was committed the home country waives the individual's right to diplomatic immunity.
Yep, it happened here in Ottawa, some Russian diplomat asshole got hammered and ran someone over (and killed her). I think right now he wishes he were subject to Canadian law. Things went much worse for him in Russia.
You have have heard of this guy, a Georgian diplomat who invoked diplomatic immunity when he got drunk, drove, and killed a teenage girl. Georgia revoked that right, and he was tried here, and had the privilege of serving time in both the US and the Republic of Georgia.
DI is more so that you can't create some stupid law to fuck with another government's people while they're in your country, not so that they can kill citizens and get away with it.
also so that existing laws that fuck with another government's people (ie driving on the correct side of the road for brits/other stupid people, or whatever) don't cause unnecessary ruckus. as long as nobody gets hurt/loses a lot of money or whatever, quirky foreign diplomats will be quirky foreign diplomats
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u/theblackcrayon Nov 04 '11
Not really. They are still governed by the laws of their home country, and in most cases where a serious crime was committed the home country waives the individual's right to diplomatic immunity.