R v Jiminez-Paez
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 16 March 1993 |
| Date | 16 March 1993 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
Court of Appeal
Criminal procedure - immune consular official - not "outside UK"
A consular official who was unwilling to give evidence in a criminal trial was not, by virtue of her diplomatic status which might make her immune to the process, deemed to be outside the United Kingdom for the purposes of section 23(2)(b)(i) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
The Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Russell, Mr Justice Morland and Mr Justice Mantell) so stated on February 23 when dismissing the appeal of Carmenza Jiminez-Paez from her conviction on June 25, 1992 at Isleworth Crown Court (Mr Recorder Badenoch, QC and a jury) of unlawfully importing 564gm of cocaine into the United Kingdom.
LORD JUSTICE RUSSELL said that the appellant, a native of Colombia, gave evidence that she thought she was smuggling emeralds. Counsel sought to introduce in evidence a letter from a consular official asserting that a black market in emeralds existed in Colombia and one of the most usual methods of export was by the type of internal concealment used by the appellant.
When objection was taken to the production of the letter it was submitted that because of the writer's status she was immune to process and therefore at all times "outside the United Kingdom" so that her letter was...
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R v Richards (Frank)
...A number of those cases will now be examined to see what ought to be the proper interpretation of the provision. 5 The case of R v Carmenza Jiminez-Paez (1994) 98 Cr. App. R. 239, reminds us that the provision has two requirements. First, the witness must be out of the island, and second, i......