How Diplomats Have Broken The Law In NZ - And What Happened Next

Saturday, 21 December 2024, 6:51 pm
Article: RNZ

Kate Green , Reporter
20 December 2024

A handful of foreign diplomats have misbehaved during their time in New Zealand - and not all of them have been brought to justice.

Most recently, a former staff member at central Wellington restaurant, Saigon on Willis, told Stuff she was assaulted by visiting Vietnamese officials while on shift in March.

Police said there was "no doubt" she and another female worker were indecently assaulted, but as the two men had left New Zealand, they were unable to lay charges.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters he understood extradition would be unlikely in this situation.

But more recently police told RNZ they were speaking with other agencies and their Vietnamese counterparts "to understand any available options".

In an update on Wednesday, police said they remained in contact with the two women involved to ensure their wellbeing, and inquiries were ongoing.

What is diplomatic immunity, anyway?

Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, diplomatic staff and their families are granted immunity from arrest or prosecution, and cannot be detained or subpoenaed as a witness.

This can be waived if the New Zealand government believes a serious crime - an offence for which the penalty is a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more - is alleged to have been committed, and it is in the public interest to prosecute.

Graeme Edgeler, a Wellington lawyer and electoral law expert, told RNZ's Nights diplomatic immunity was meant to give countries peace of mind sending representatives overseas.

It prevents them being arrested and charged, with the intent of keeping them safe in countries where justice systems "aren't particularly friendly", because of a risk of unfair trials or use of the death penalty.

"If they didn't have immunity, certain countries probably wouldn't send diplomats at all," Edgeler said.

Diplomatic immunity has come up in several prominent cases in recent years.

Australian diplomat's partner in post-rugby brawl

In October 2024, police charged the partner of an Australian diplomat over an early morning altercation in central Wellington the previous month.

The 37-year-old man man was filmed allegedly yelling a homophobic slur at police officers before yelling that he had diplomatic immunity, during a fight after a rugby game.

He was taken into custody and Australian authorities later waived immunity, allowing him to be charged with assault.

Stuff reported the case has been adjourned until January and name suppression extended, after he appeared in Wellington District Court on 9 December.

Korean diplomat sexually assaults embassy staffer

In August, South Korean diplomat Hongkon Kim was convicted of indecent assault against a New Zealand embassy staffer at a court in South Korea.

New Zealand police received the complaint in July 2019, from a man who said he had been touched inappropriately by Kim on three different occasions dating back to 2017, when Kim was deputy ambassador.

In 2020, Kim was charged with three counts of indecent assault.

But he had already left the country, and could not be extradited thanks to a lack of cooperation from the Korean embassy.

Then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raised it with the Korean leader, which according to Newsroom, "infuriated the Koreans" and left New Zealand diplomats walking back the damage to the relationship.

The Herald reported the victim filed a formal complaint with Seoul's Metropolitan Police Agency in December 2022, after the New Zealand complaint stalled.

And then, in August, Stuff reported the district court in Incheon, South Korea, had given Kim a delayed prison sentence of two years after being indicted on charges of indecent assault.

The victim said the guilty verdict had been a long time coming after a "really difficult few years".

But Stuff understood the delayed prison sentence could mean Kim avoided going to jail at all, so long as he exhibited good behaviour during a three-year probation period, and the victim was planning to appeal to force him to face jail time.

The case also sparked questions about ACC's privacy precautions, which came under fire in 2021 for giving out information about the victim's claim to a representative from the embassy.

Malaysian Embassy staffer stalks woman

In 2014, Malaysian defence attaché Muhammad Rizalman, 39, confronted Wellington woman Tania Billingsley in her bedroom, naked from the waist down.

Reports say they had met earlier in the evening, and he followed her home.

Billingsley was watching something on her laptop when she looked up from her bed and saw the defendant standing in the doorway of her bedroom wearing only a shirt.

She got off her bed, yelling at him to leave, and a struggle ensued in which she eventually pushed him out of the house, before locking the door, running to the bathroom and calling police.

The police said at the time he did not tell them he worked at the High Commission and was therefore covered by diplomatic immunity, when he was arrested, or at any time while he was in custody.

He was allowed to return to Malaysia, but then returned to New Zealand to face charges.

Justice David Collins found him guilty two years later, finding Rizalman had a sexual motive in following Billingsley home, had terrified his victim, and had shown a startling lack of remorse.

He was sentenced to nine months of home detention, which he served in New Zealand, before being deported back to Mayalsia.

EU diplomat leaves NZ owing months of rent

Eva Tvarozkova, who represented the European Union in New Zealand, leased a property in Karaka Bays in Wellington on a fixed-term tenancy for three years in 2015.

But when she moved out after only six months, it left landlords Matthew Ryan and Rebecca Van Den Bos out of pocket.

In March 2018, the Tenancy Tribunal awarded costs to the landlords of more than $14,000 for unpaid rent and property damage to a lift - but the case went to a rehearing less than three months later.

In the end, the tribunal ruled Tvarozkova did not have to pay any money at all, thanks to her diplomatic immunity.

Chilean diplomat causes fatal accident

Wellington woman Sacha MacFarlane, 20, died in a head-on collision when Luis Felipe Lopez, who had been drinking, crossed the centreline of the OId Hutt Road in 1984.

Lopez was given diplomatic immunity, returned to Chile, and was never brought to justice.

But the Chilean government issued an apology 26 years later, at a memorial service for MacFarlane.

Her father, Kester MacFarlane, told RNZ in 2014 the apology felt "pretty empty" and the law was "very archaic".

"Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that the diplomatic immunity was meant to ensure reciprocal protection to diplomats [...] but the abuse of privileges has now become so widespread [...] that it's just for convenience for diplomats to flout local laws."

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