United States Military Attache Col Joseph Emanuel Hall left for the United States on Monday evening, diplomatic sources said.
Earlier on Saturday, a United Airforce C130 airplane returned from the Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi without the diplomat as the Interior Ministry refused to issue him a No Objection Certificate (NOC), sources added.
According to sources, the local police has handed over all record related to Colonel Hall to US officials. The US government had refused to exempt Joseph from the diplomatic immunity, said sources.
On April 7, Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall ran a red light and rammed into a motorcycle, killing a Pakistani civilian. He was let go by police officials in Islamabad after the accident as the law – Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 – provided the diplomat immunity from criminal prosecution.
On May 11, the Islamabad High Court on a petition filed by the deceased’s father, had ruled that the US diplomat did not have absolute immunity in the country.
The court had also granted two weeks to the Ministry of Interior Affairs to decide over placing his name on the Exit Control List (ECL).
A security official, part of Colonel Hall’s security detail, had been arrested on the orders of AIG Islamabad for obstructing a police officer from performing his duty, a source had said.
Arrest orders had also been issued for all other officials involved in helping Colonel Joseph flee from the police station, the source had further said.
Published in Daily Times, May 15th 2018.
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