01 February 2024 , 18:31
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The 19-year-old son of an Israeli diplomat is accused of deliberately driving his motorbike into a Florida police officer because he "hates waiting behind traffic."
According to his lawyer, Avraham Gil's charges could be dropped due to his father's diplomatic immunity. Gil was arrested after allegedly hitting a Sunny Isles Beach police lieutenant who was conducting a traffic stop on Collins Avenue, a main road in Miami. Despite the officer signalling for him to stop, Gil reportedly continued to ride and "intentionally ran him over." The officer suffered a serious injury to his left leg but managed to pull Gil off his bike and bring him to the ground.
Gil, who lives in Aventura, has been charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence, both felonies. His father, Eli Gil, is the consul for administration at the Israeli Consulate in Miami. According to the Miami New Times, Gil told officers he was weaving through the vehicles because he "hates waiting behind traffic."
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The motorbike in the road after he crashed (Sunny Isles Beach Police)
Avraham Gil, 19, appeared to be hysterically crying in his mugshot after he was arrested (Sunny Isles Beach Police)His lawyers argue that due to his father's diplomatic status, the charges against him should be dropped as they claim Miami-Dade law doesn't apply to him. "Family members forming part of the household of diplomatic agents enjoy precisely the same privileges and immunities as do the sponsoring diplomatic agents," says the US State Department's guide on "Diplomatic and Consular Immunity."
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They get total protection from being taken to court in the host country for crimes, unless their home country says it's okay, according to the rules. But a legal expert reckons this might not help Gil because his dad's job isn't the top diplomat type. "Diplomatic immunity is not given to people who are called consular officials, and those are people who are not the head diplomatic agent of a foreign country here in the United States, so there is a distinction," David Weinstein explained to Local 10.
Eli Gil is a diplomat who works at the Israeli Consulate in Miami (Local 10)
The cop's injured leg after the incident (Sunny Isles Beach Police)Gil has had trouble with Miami cops before, including running away from them once. Bodycam footage just out shows a cop trying to stop a motorbike rider, thought to be Gil, on Jan. 14. The rider zoomed off, but the cop didn't chase him because they're not supposed to for just traffic stuff, the news said.
Gil was pulled over on New Year's Eve in Miami Shores for several traffic offences. He told the officer his dad was an Israeli diplomat, which led to a call to his parents. His motorbike had a cheeky number plate that read "PLS CHASE," hidden by a second flip-up plate. The officer he allegedly ran over is still off work due to his injuries.
After being arrested, the teen was pictured crying in his mugshot taken over the weekend, but "showed no emotion" during his first court appearance. A hearing is set for the morning of February 26. The US is home to thousands of diplomats. While not much statistical information is available on their 'crimes,' a study in 2006 found that most of those who received parking tickets were from Kuwait, averaging 249 traffic tickets per diplomat.
Other top offenders were from Egypt, Chad, Sudan, and Bulgaria, all of which have low scores in the World Bank's public corruption ranking. The problem got so bad in New York in 2002 that Mayor Bloomberg introduced a "three strikes, you're out" rule, towing diplomatic cars linked to parking violations and confiscating their distinctive plates. This led to a 90 percent drop in parking violations by diplomats within three years.
Avraham Gil, 19, pictured here in court (Local 10)Dealing with diplomatic crimes isn't straightforward. Under the Vienna Convention, diplomats are not liable to any form of arrest or detention. This essentially gives them immunity from criminal prosecution for a range of offences.
In 1984, an Iranian envoy shoplifted raincoats from a New York department store. In 1975, a delegate from Barbados claimed that his German Shepherd, who had bitten several neighbours in Pelham, New York, was protected by immunity and any action against the dog would lead to "possible international consequences."
Ecuadorian diplomats smuggled 40 kilos of cocaine from Mexico to New York in a diplomatic pouch in 2012. In 1984, six Iranian diplomats slaughtered a sheep on a London street, but British authorities couldn't charge them with animal cruelty due to their diplomatic status.
In 2010, Qatari diplomat Mohammed al-Madadi lit a pipe in the lavatory on a United flight from Washington DC to Denver. After being confronted, he joked about "lighting his shoes," referring to shoe bomber Richard Reid. The plane was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs and explosive experts upon landing, and al-Madadi was immediately released.
Diplomats from Zaire, now known as the Republic of Congo, refused to pay rent for the Manhattan high-rise they occupied since 1982. Despite owing over $400,000 to their landlord a decade later, they claimed diplomatic immunity and refused to pay or leave. They vacated the premises in 2005, without paying.
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In a 1984 case, Nigerian diplomats and some Israeli co-conspirators tried to kidnap a former Nigerian minister in London by hiding him in a shipping crate.
More recently, there have been cases of involuntary manslaughter and minor violence involving diplomats. In 2019, Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US diplomat, hit and killed a 19-year-old motorcyclist in Northamptonshire. Xiang Xueqi, the wife of Belgium's ambassador to South Korea, slapped several employees at a Seoul boutique last April after they accused her of shoplifting.