WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama urged Pakistan Tuesday to free a detained US official, while insisting that he was not “callous” about the deadly shooting that led to the US employee's arrest.
In his first public remarks on a case that has cast a chill over an already uneasy partnership, Obama said that detained official Raymond Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Conventions.
“We expect Pakistan... to abide by the same convention,” Obama told a news conference.
“We're going to be continuing to work with the Pakistani government to get this person released,” he said.
“Obviously, we're concerned about the loss of life. We're not callous about that, but there is a broader principle at stake,” Obama said.
Obama said that diplomatic immunity was critical because otherwise diplomats who “deliver to tough messages to countries where we disagree with them” will “start being vulnerable to prosecution locally.” “That's untenable. It means they can't do their job,” Obama said.
A court last Friday remanded Davis in custody until February 25 and police accused him of cold-blooded murder.
Lahore police said Tuesday they had submitted in court completed documents charging Davis with murder, a precursor to any formal indictment.
“He should be prosecuted for murder,” deputy superintendent of police Safdar Raza Kazmi told AFP.
The Lahore high court is expected to reconvene on Thursday after giving the foreign ministry 15 days to answer on whether he has diplomatic immunity.
The US consul general in Lahore, Carmela Conroy, on Tuesday said Davis was receiving the same treatment as any other prisoner in Pakistan.
“Ray is being treated like a regular prisoner. He has no access to a television, telephone, internet or any other electronic devices, and cannot communicate directly with his family,” said a US embassy statement in Islamabad quoting Conroy.
“He is being held under the same conditions as a Pakistani would be, in such a high-security facility. He sleeps on a foam mattress on a concrete pad,” Conroy added.
“Davis has regular consular access visits, as all foreign prisoners are entitled under international and Pakistani law. He has received only basic clothing, groceries, medicine and toiletries,” the statement said.
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