Dunn family spokesman: US State Dept are 'cowards' with 'heads in the sand'
Radd Seiger reacts to the department's refusal to meet the parents of Harry Dunn, who was killed in a collision with a US driver.
Tuesday 4 February 2020 02:05, UK
Lawyers for the US State Department have refused to meet the parents of Harry Dunn.
Harry, 19, was killed when his motorbike collided with a car being driven on the wrong side of a Northamptonshire road in August.
The car was driven by Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US diplomat, who claimed diplomatic immunity and left the UK.
In December, she was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with death by dangerous driving but has ignored the pleas of Harry's parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn for her to return to the UK.
Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger said US State Department's refusal to meet the family came after his written request.
Mr Seiger said the latest development made him "ashamed to be American".
He told Sky News: "Not only has the State Department turned down a perfectly lawful request for a meeting, they're not even abiding by the terms of the extradition treaty.
"They're cowards and they have their heads in the sand.
"If there's some sort of legitimate national security reason why they can't extradite this lady [Mrs Sacoolas], then they should make that clear and maybe this family would go away.
"But they need to look the family in the eye and tell them why they're behaving so completely lawlessly."
In January, the US refused to extradite Mrs Sacoolas, with a State Department spokesman saying the request undermined the use of diplomatic immunity.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson described this as a "denial of justice" and Harry's family criticised it as a "political decision".
When asked on Tuesday what the family can do now, Mr Seiger told Sky News: "That's a tough one.
"We're going to have to figure out what we do next, and we're going to have to speak to the British government.
"I saw Dominic Raab on Sky News saying he was 'disappointed' by the situation. Forgive me, but we don't need your disappointment, we need you to do something."