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| © B.K. Bangash/Associated Press Protesters gathered last month in Islamabad, Pakistan, near the scene of a fatal traffic accident that… |
By SALMAN MASOOD, The New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
An American diplomat involved in a fatal accident was allowed by the Pakistani authorities to leave the country on Monday just days after officials here prevented him from boarding a United States military plane, according to American officials.
“We can confirm that the American diplomat, who was involved in a tragic car accident on April 7 in Islamabad, has departed Pakistan,” Nolen Johnson, a State Department spokesman, said in an email.
Pakistani authorities made no comment about the sudden departure of the diplomat, who found himself at the center of the latest diplomatic dispute between the two countries. Local news media outlets reported the departure of the diplomat, citing anonymous official sources.
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The diplomat, Col. Joseph Emanuel Hall, a military attaché at the United States Embassy in Islamabad, is accused of having run a red light and fatally hitting a 22-year-old man on April 7. Another passenger on the bike was injured.
The authorities did not arrest Colonel Hall because he had diplomatic immunity. But as a furor here grew over the accident, he was barred from leaving the country, and Pakistani officials said he faced criminal charges.
A C-130 cargo plane that was sent to fly Colonel Hall out of Pakistan had to return last week after Pakistani authorities refused to let him board.
Pakistani officials had been demanding that the United States waive Colonel Hall’s diplomatic immunity, but American officials refused.
Alice G. Wells, a senior State Department official, visited Islamabad last month to discuss the case.
Last week, the Islamabad High Court ruled that the colonel did not enjoy full diplomatic immunity and gave the government two weeks to decide whether he should be placed on the Exit Control List, an official roster of names that bars people from leaving the country.
The United States and Pakistan imposed travel restrictions on each other’s diplomats last week as the dispute continued to simmer. Ties between the countries have frayed since January when the Trump administration announced that it had suspended nearly all of the $1.3 billion in annual security aid given to Pakistan.
Before the announcement, President Trump had complained on Twitter that Pakistan had “given us nothing but lies & deceit” and accused it of providing “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan.”
The Trump administration has also sought to strengthen ties with India, Pakistan’s bitter rival.
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