Rights activists in Tanzania yesterday protested Saudi Arabia's refusal to lift immunity on one of its diplomats accused of rape in the east African country. "If the Saudi government is not ready to waive diplomatic immunity to allow the trial of the suspect, there is no need for Tanzania to maintain diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia," Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) Managing Director Hellen Bisimba said. Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) chairperson Tumaini Slaa also urged the Saudi authorities to lift the immunity, saying the offence is serious enough. "It is our believe that Riyadh will sooner rather than later lift diplomatic immunity on the official," Slaa said in a statement. "This is a criminal offence. Does it mean that the official could still be shielded with diplomatic immunity if he were to attack and kill someone with a machete or a gun?" she asked.
Tanzania's Diplomatic Immunity Act and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations bar the government from prosecuting the suspect. "Such a law is utterly absurd and must not be applied blindly," Slaa added. |