UNITED NATIONS, April 26 (UPI) -- Avoiding possible prosecution for chaotic driving and injuring a police officer, a low-level U.N. employee from Russia was sent home this week.
John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, insisted the Russian government waive diplomatic immunity in order to prosecute Ilya Morozov, who worked for the Russian Mission to the United Nations, for alleged alcohol-induced road rage.
"The United States Mission considers alcohol related offenses to be a very serious threat to public safety," said Bolton in a letter to Marjorie Tiven, commissioner for New York City Commission for the U.N. Consular Corps and Protocol.
Diplomatic immunity allows foreign government representatives to work and operate under laws of their home country while abroad. U.S. authorities can prosecute Morozov if the Russia government waives immunity. Instead, they sent him home.
"It's not as good as a prosecution, but it would be significant that he couldn't come back to the United States," said Bolton Wednesday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.
According to the police report, Morozov, in a 2005 Toyota Corolla with diplomatic license plates, was swerving around traffic cones which had been erected to close the road for construction on FDR Drive and East 108th Street in Manhattan Saturday. When the officer ordered him to stop, Morozov hit the officer, who sustained a knee injury and was taken to Cornell Medical Center. He was released Monday.
Morozov was detained and issued summonses with seven violations which included speeding, operating a motor vehicle on the sidewalk and on the shoulder, failure to comply with a lawful order from a police officer and driving while impaired with alcohol.
The report did not indicate if a breathalyzer test was administered. The Russian Mission could not be reached for comment.
