By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
In December 2013, the Department of Justice filed a first indictment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade over the charge of visa fraud and false statements. The indictment was issued by a grand jury but thrown out by the U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who ruled that she was protected by diplomatic immunity: “appointed a Counselor to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.”
The Justice Department is now seeking a second indictment.
New Delhi warns that these recent actions could “impact” bilateral relations. The move on the part of the US is overly-aggressive in the eyes of India, who feel the first indictment was rightfully thrown out.
The diplomatic tension has been on-going since December. As if that is not enough, the largest outrage sparked by the diplomat’s allegations that she strip-searched by federal agents and thrown in with the other “commoner” female suspects of Manhattan.
The lack of special treatment of foreign diplomats in the US has direct repercussions for our representatives living in the respective countries abroad beyond damages to bilateral relations.
India retaliated by taking away extra privileges for US diplomats, in this case, for example. They played a big spectacle: removing cement barriers and extra security protection in front of the US Embassy in New Delhi and also revoked diplomatic IDs.
India is already treated like a third-wheel in the region from their perspective. The US gave substantial security funding to its direct border-state arch enemy, Pakistan for well over a decade. India has a nuclear deterrent and an on-going territorial dispute in the Kashmir with Pakistan.
US-India relations are not great and they are deteriorating rather than improving.
Dr. Devyani Khobragade’s case of suspected visa fraud involved is certainly a serious matter. But she was accused of lying about how much she paid a babysitter on her visa. She was originally charged with exploitative work conditions and failing to pay the legal wage. A crime, sure, but not one that was prosecutor under diplomatic immunity.
This comes after a somewhat related case where a Saudi princess named Mechael Alaybanin, living in California, was charged with human trafficking and exploitative wages involving her maid in 2013. That case was thrown out as well; in spite of a history of abuse from a 2002 case where she was charged with pushing her maid down a flight of stairs in Florida. She paid a no-contest fee of $1,000 and ended up living in California.
Many diplomats are criminals or engaged in minor criminal activity, but they are under the Vienna Convention protected from arrest and incarceration. They can be deported in case of high crimes. If the diplomat’s country waives or relinquishes their immunity, the suspected guilty party can be charged in the host country by foreign law. In the case of murders and so forth, the diplomat’s home state will often disown them but not always.
For visa fraud, the US wanted to make an example out of Khobragade and discourage that type of criminal activity; especially from people with diplomatic status. On the other hand, it is difficult to make an example out of the persona non grata. There are better ways to deal with these criminal diplomats, but that is a difficult task and there are so many living in the USA.
The better way to have dealt with Dr. Khobragade’s would have for Justice to have informed State of suspected wrongdoing and State notifying the Indian government through appropriate procedures. Further actions could have been taken to remove her from the USA for reasons stated and issue a stern warning to the government of India quietly.
This would have been an alternative to the issued arrest warrant and following abuse that started this larger diplomatic row. Instead of an apology after the judge’s ruling and the abuse she suffered, the Indian diplomat gets another indictment, filed yesterday. This of course makes the US appear even worse the menace and further damages bigger picture US-India relations unnecessarily in favor of limited law enforcement gains and visa fraud law.
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