Penanggalan hak kekebalan diplomatik

Kasus Duta Besar Republik Georgia untuk Amerika Serikat

Gueorgui Makharadze
Gueorgui Makharadze (born 1961) was the deputy ambassador of
the Republic of Georgia to the United States. On January 3, 1997,
while driving in Washington, D.C. around midnight, Makharadze
caused an accident that injured four people and killed sixteen-yearold Jovianne Waltrick.[1] He was found to have a blood alcohol
content of 0.15, but released from custody because he was a
diplomat. The U.S. government asked the Georgian government to
waive his immunity, which they did and Makharadze was tried and
convicted of manslaughter by the U.S. and sentenced to seven to
twenty-one years in prison.[2] The first three years of his sentence
were served in a North Carolina prison, after which he was
repatriated to his home nation of Georgia to serve the remainder of
his sentence.

References[edit]

1.

Jump up^ "Diplomat involved in fatal traffic accident". CNN.

January 4, 1997. Archived from the original on April 26, 2006.

2.

Jump up^ "Ex-Diplomat Gets 7 Years for Death of Teen in

Crash". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. December 20, 1997.
Retrieved June 14, 2011.

CNN.com U.S. News Archive, Georgian diplomat ordered to

remain in United States," January 10, 1997, Web posted at: 9:00
p.m. EST, taken on October 11, 2006.

CNN.com U.S. News Archive, "Georgian president to waive

envoy's immunity," January 12, 1997, Web posted at: 8:30 a.m.
EST (1330 GMT), taken on October 11, 2006.

New York Times Archives, "Victim's Family Sues Georgian

Diplomat" Published January 1, 1998, taken October 11, 2006.

New York Times Archives, "National News Briefs; Envoy

Claims Immunity In Wrongful-Death Suit," Published April 26,
1998, taken on October 11, 2006.

Georgian Diplomat Pleads Guilty

in Death of Teen-Age Girl
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: October 9, 1997
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/09/us/georgian-diplomat-pleads-guilty-indeath-of-teen-age-girl.html

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 An embassy official from the

Republic of Georgia pleaded guilty today to charges of
involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault for driving
while intoxicated and causing the death of a teen-age girl and
injuring four other people in an accident in January.
The diplomat, Gueorgui Makharadze, lost his diplomatic
immunity last February. He was held without bond and could
face 70 years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 19.
Standing solemnly in District of Columbia Superior Court to
confirm the terms of his plea, he said, ''I take full
responsibility for what happened.'' Throughout his brief court
appearance, relatives and friends of the dead girl, Joviane
Waltrick, 16, dabbed tears from their eyes.
The plea arrangement with Federal prosecutors, in which
none of the original charges were reduced, brought an end to
a case that focused attention on diplomatic immunity, which
is intended to protect foreign diplomats from capricious
actions by another government. But diplomats have often
used immunity to avoid responsibility for criminal acts as
serious as manslaughter or as routine as parking tickets. In
New York City, which like Washington has a large
concentration of foreign diplomats, unpaid parking tickets
amounting to millions of dollars in lost revenues are a source
of major friction between the city and the United Nations.
The United States routinely invokes immunity for its
diplomats accused of violating the laws of another country, on

the ground that they could not be assured of a high standard

of justice.
Georgian officials initially invoked immunity for Mr.
Makharadze, 36, a Harvard-educated envoy who at the time
of the crash was the second-highest-ranking diplomat in the
embassy, and indicated that he would be recalled home.
But President Eduard A. Shevardnadze of Georgia stepped in
quickly to assure the State Department that, owing to the
seriousness of the incident and Mr. Makharadze's obvious
role in it, his country would not block efforts by the United
States to prosecute Mr. Makharadze here.
For the family of Joviane, the plea arrangement was all they
could have hoped for. ''My daughter will not come back, but it
has been worth the fight because immunity is not impunity,''
her mother, Viviane Wagner, said in Portuguese, speaking
through a translator.
Ms. Wagner and her family had moved to the United States
from their native Brazil about five months before the crash
and were living in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Md.
On the night of Jan. 3, Joviane was a passenger in one of
several cars stopped at a light just north of Dupont Circle in
Northwest Washington, a neighborhood crowded with traffic
and pedestrians.
According to the plea agreement, which he signed on
Monday, Mr. Makharadze was driving his Ford Taurus at
least 74 miles an hour toward the light, which operates over a
street where the speed limit is 25. The Taurus plowed into
three cars, the first of which was propelled 30 feet into the air
before landing on a fourth car. Joviane and a 19-year-old
friend, who suffered injuries to his spleen, were in the second
car Mr. Makharadze hit.

In the agreement, Mr. Makharadze also acknowledged that he

drank two glasses of wine and one shot of a liqueur and
shared three one-liter carafes of wine with two companions at
a restaurant that night before leaving in his car. Hospital tests
after the accident showed that his blood alcohol
concentration was at least 0.15 percent, well above the city's
legal limit of 0.10 percent.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said they would
not oppose continued release for Mr. Makharadze before
sentencing, concurrent sentences for the five charges against
him or Mr. Makharadze's request to be placed in a Federal
prison other than the Lorton correctional complex south of
Washington.
But Judge Harold L. Cushenberry Jr. rendered the first
request moot when he denied Mr. Makharadze bail, citing
past violations in which speeding and drinking were involved.
Mr. Makharadze was stopped 18 months ago for driving at 90
miles an hour on an interstate near Richmond and four
months later by police officers in Washington for driving the
wrong way on a city street, nearly colliding with a police
cruiser. In that incident, an officer said he smelled alcohol,
and when he insisted that Mr. Makharadze not continue
driving, the diplomat said he was protected by immunity.
As a result, Judge Cushenberry said the incidents
demonstrated that Mr. Makharadze cannot be trusted to
remain free, even though he has relinquished his driver's
license and passport. Tedo Japaridze, Georgia's Ambassador
to the United States, criticized the judge's decision as
''extreme.''
E. Lawrence Barcella, Mr. Makharadze's lawyer, said he
hoped the judge would be more lenient.

''I strongly hope Gueorgui doesn't end up becoming a poster

child for everybody's accumulated frustration over diplomats
and drunk driving,'' Mr. Barcella said. ''He does not pose a
threat to the community.''

Ex-Diplomat Gets 7 Years for

Death of Teen in Crash
December 20, 1997|From Associated Press

Email

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/20/news/mn-531
WASHINGTON A former Republic of Georgia diplomat,
whose nation waived his immunity, was sentenced Friday
to seven to 21 years in prison for the death of a Maryland
teenager in a car crash.
Gueorgui Makharadze, who had been drinking heavily
before the Jan. 3 crash, said he could only "pray for
forgiveness."
It will be at least six years before Makharadze, formerly the
second-highest-ranking diplomat in the Georgian Embassy,
is eligible for parole. Assistant U.S. Atty. Katherine Winfree
said the sentence sends a message that "diplomatic
immunity is a shield and not a sword."

The case stirred debate about diplomatic immunity before

Georgia, a former Soviet republic, waived protection for
Makharadze.
"I would hope that diplomats, like any other motorists,
would think twice before getting behind the wheel of the
car when they're intoxicated," Winfree said.
Makharadze, 36, pleaded guilty in October to one count of
involuntary manslaughter and four counts of aggravated
assault. He could have been sentenced to up to 70 years in
prison.
The five-car pileup on Dupont Circle near Embassy Row
killed 16-year-old Jovianne Waltrick of Kensington, Md., and
injured four others.
Speaking in a barely audible voice, Makharadze told the
court: "I only wish I could undo what I have done."
Turning to Viviane Wagner, the dead girl's mother, he said:
"I want you to know I will bear the guilt and pain of having
caused the death of your daughter every day."
In handing down the sentence, District of Columbia
Superior Court Judge Harold Cushenberry said the former
diplomat "voluntarily chose to ignore the risks" of drinking
and driving.
The judge praised Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze for waiving Makharadze's diplomatic
immunity, calling the decision "courageous."

He said the relatively harsh sentence was based on

Makharadze's record of driving offenses.
In April 1996, Makharadze was charged with speeding in
Virginia. Four months later, he was detained by District of
Columbia police who suspected him of drunk driving but
released him after he claimed diplomatic immunity.

cidents -- Washington Dc

Diplomat Is Charged in Fatal Car

Crash
February 21, 1997|ROBERT L. JACKSON | TIMES STAFF
WRITER

Email

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-02-21/news/mn31094_1_diplomatic-immunity

WASHINGTON In a court appearance made possible by a

rare waiver of diplomatic immunity, an embassy official of
the Republic of Georgia was charged with involuntary
manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault
Thursday for his part in the death of a Washington area
teenager in a traffic accident last month.
Gueorgui Makharadze, the second-ranking diplomat at the
embassy, expressed "deepest sorrow" for his role in multicar pileup that killed 16-year-old Joviane Waltrick and
injured four other people. But Makharadze suggested that
his trial will demonstrate mitigating circumstances and
asked the public for understanding.
The case of Makharadze, 35, became an instant talk-show
topic here in early January when public outrage grew with
the realization that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity from
criminal charges in this country, as do U.S. diplomats who
serve overseas.
But Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign
minister who became Georgia's president after the breakup
of the Soviet Union, announced recently that he would
waive Makharadze's immunity so the diplomat could be
charged and stand trial here. It was an act that won instant
praise from officials of the State Department, which has
never waived similar protection for American diplomats.
"There are very few instances in diplomatic history where a
government has lifted diplomatic immunity in a case like
this," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said
earlier this month. But he added: "This is an unusual case."

The accident in which Waltrick died seemed particularly

egregious. Police said the car driven by Makharadze, which
officials estimated was traveling 80 mph, slammed into a
smaller vehicle at a busy Washington intersection. The
second auto was knocked into the air and crashed onto a
third car in which the girl was a passenger.
Makharadze allegedly invoked his diplomatic privilege at
the scene to avoid taking a Breathalyzer test. Arresting
officers suspected that he was drunk, but associates later
claimed that he had had only "a couple glasses of wine" a
few hours earlier
Makharadze, wearing an open-collar white shirt and a
tweed jacket, surrendered to authorities early Thursday in
the company of his attorneys. He appeared several hours
later in Superior Court for the District of Columbia to face
the charges.
Federal prosecutors agreed to a request by Makharadze's
lawyers that, pending trial, he be released to the custody of
Georgian Embassy officials here. He surrendered his
diplomatic passport and must report on a weekly basis to
the court's pretrial services office.
His lawyers, Paul Perito and E. Lawrence Barcella, said they
were shocked at the severity of the charges, which carry a
combined maximum punishment of 70 years in prison.
They added that the affidavit in support of Makharadze's
arrest warrant "fails to reveal that a number of witnesses
have stated that Mr. Makharadze consumed only a

moderate amount of alcohol during a more than three-hour

working business meeting."
The lawyers' statement suggested that the brakes on the
car driven by the diplomat may not have been working
properly, although this cannot be "established
conclusively," they said.
A hospital test later showed Makharadze's blood-alcohol
level was 0.185, which is above the 0.10 level at which a
driver is considered intoxicated. However, his lawyers said
in their statement that the hospital "did not use proper
procedures and tests to extract and preserve the blood that
was drawn."