The wife of Belgium’s ambassador to South Korea, who allegedly hit two staff members at a boutique store in Seoul last month, has now invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid criminal charges, police said Tuesday. According to local media reports, a store employee had mistaken Xiang Xueqiu, wife of Ambassador Peter Lescouhier, for a shoplifter and tried to look inside the jacket she was wearing. The security camera footage shared widely online showed Xiang Xueqiu, wife of Ambassador Peter Lescouhier, pushing one of the staff members before slapping her across the face. The use of diplomatic immunity has come under scrutiny in other countries, especially after Anne Sacoolas, wife of an American ambassador, fled the United Kingdom using diplomatic immunity following her alleged involvement in a fatal road accident that killed a British teenager, Harry Dunn. The parents of Harry Dunn launched a court case, which they eventually lost in November 2020, to argue that Britain’s Foreign Office wrongly decided Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity.

Source: Hindustan Times May 18, 2021 12:56 UTC