Harry Dunn crash: Dominic Raab 'raises case' with US counterpart

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Harry DunnImage source, Justice4Harry19
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Harry Dunn died in hospital after his motorbike was involved in a crash outside RAF Croughton

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has again raised the Harry Dunn case with the US secretary of state, said the prime minister.

Mr Dunn, 19, died when his motorbike was in a crash with a car near RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire, in 2019.

The suspect, Anne Sacoolas, later left for the United States on grounds of diplomatic immunity.

Boris Johnson said: "It's a case that we continue to raise at the highest level."

Mrs Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence official based at RAF Croughton, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

But a Home Office extradition request was refused by former President Donald Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in January last year.

Mr Raab had already spoken to Joe Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January about the case but a State Department spokesman said the decision to refuse extradition was "final".

More on Harry Dunn

At Prime Minister's Questions, South Northamptonshire MP Andrea Leadsom asked Mr Johnson whether he would "continue to do everything in his power... to try and persuade President Biden to deliver justice for Harry".

In response, the prime minister said: "She's completely right to continue to raise the case of Harry Dunn and we sympathise deeply with his family."

He said Mr Raab had "only just raised it now with Tony Blinken, the US Secretary of State".

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was appointed by Joe Biden in January

Mr Dunn's family have filed a civil claim for damages against Mrs Sacoolas in the US.

A court hearing in the eastern district of Virginia previously heard her work in intelligence was "especially a factor" in her departure and that she "fled" the UK for "issues of security".

The court is due to hear from Mrs Sacoolas's legal representatives who will submit motions to dismiss certain parts of the civil claim, with the full case to be heard in Virginia later this year.

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