5 ms·

I am surprised a researcher has diplomatic immunity. Even lower level embassy staff do not necessarily have it. In the USA I don't think he would be protected

I am surprised a researcher has diplomatic immunity. Even lower level embassy staff do not necessarily have it. In the USA I don't think he would be protected as an International Organization staffer (he is not a diplomat): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_immunity#In_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_immunity#In_the_Uni...

erklik 7y ago
> I am surprised a researcher has diplomatic immunity. An indication that he might actually have been doing what he was accused of?
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  'Official researcher' would seem an unusually direct cover for a spy.
- bob_doggo 7y ago
  he is accused of "spying", that is: collecting information about things the tunisian government doesn't want other people to know and then give that information to foreign parties. His job for the UN was to find out if tunisia is violating UN rules. In other words, he did exactly what they are accusing him of, just that it isn't spying because tunisia have themselves decided to be a part of UN.
sgift 7y ago
It's a bit more complex with the UN than normal diplomatic immunity (it is not a country after all). A bit of Google tells me that specialists working for the UN have the same protections as UN officials for the purpose of their mandate and the protections of all UN officials are roughly equivalent to that of a "normal" diplomat: "As opposed to United Nations officials, experts on missions for the United Nations, like members of the International Law Commission, Special Rapporteurs, or members of United Nations peacekeeping operations, serve under a temporary and specific mandate. They also enjoy certain functionally limited privileges and immunities pursuant to article VI of the General Convention."[1] The relevant document is "Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies" from 1947[2]. So, as long as the US doesn't intend to break that convention specialists working for the UN probably have immunity in the US too. (IANAL, and so on) [1] http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cpiun-cpisa/cpiun-cpisa.html http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cpiun-cpisa/cpiun-cpisa.html [2] http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48887&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48887&URL_DO=DO_TO...

erklik 7y ago

> I am surprised a researcher has diplomatic immunity. An indication that he might actually have been doing what he was accused of?

inflatableDodo 7y ago
'Official researcher' would seem an unusually direct cover for a spy.
bob_doggo 7y ago
he is accused of "spying", that is: collecting information about things the tunisian government doesn't want other people to know and then give that information to foreign parties. His job for the UN was to find out if tunisia is violating UN rules. In other words, he did exactly what they are accusing him of, just that it isn't spying because tunisia have themselves decided to be a part of UN.

sgift 7y ago

It's a bit more complex with the UN than normal diplomatic immunity (it is not a country after all). A bit of Google tells me that specialists working for the UN have the same protections as UN officials for the purpose of their mandate and the protections of all UN officials are roughly equivalent to that of a "normal" diplomat: "As opposed to United Nations officials, experts on missions for the United Nations, like members of the International Law Commission, Special Rapporteurs, or members of United Nations peacekeeping operations, serve under a temporary and specific mandate. They also enjoy certain functionally limited privileges and immunities pursuant to article VI of the General Convention."[1] The relevant document is "Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies" from 1947[2]. So, as long as the US doesn't intend to break that convention specialists working for the UN probably have immunity in the US too. (IANAL, and so on) [1] http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cpiun-cpisa/cpiun-cpisa.html http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cpiun-cpisa/cpiun-cpisa.html [2] http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48887&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=48887&URL_DO=DO_TO...