Will a Russian passport help Steven Seagalu to avoid prosecution in the USA?

In respect newly appointed special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for relations with the United States actor Stephen Segal in California is investigating a sexual harassment case, which he has been accused of dozens of women.

Photo: Facebook / Maria Zakharova

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not rule out the issuance of a diplomatic passport to Sigalu, but even this most likely will not help him avoid criminal prosecution, writes with the BBC.

The former star of American militants Stephen Sigal received a Russian passport from the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016, but he used the location of the head of the Kremlin long before that.

In 2013, during the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, the Russian president proposed to American officials to make Seagal honorary consul of Russia in Arizona and California, but the Americans thought that Putin was joking. In 2015, Peskov called the relationship between Seagal and Putin a “completely normal friendship”; in 2018, Seagal was invited to Putin's inauguration.

In early August, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Seagal was appointed special representative of the diplomatic mission on issues of Russian-American humanitarian ties and the common cultural and historical heritage.

According to Agent Segal Anar Reyband, the actor himself offered cooperation to the Foreign Ministry.

“He has a personal touch with many people. And during one of the meetings, he himself suggested it,” Reyband said. The Russian diplomatic department confirmed this information.

Meanwhile, in the US, the 66-year-old actor, whose career peak hit the 1980-1990 years, is accused of harassment and even rape.

Investigation

Despite the fact that dozens of women have been talking about Segal’s harassment since the beginning of the 1990s, an official investigation was launched just now.

In February of this year, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office reported that the agency is investigating a sexual harassment case involving Stephen Seagal. In late January, the Beverly Hills police gave information to the prosecutors. The investigation of sexual assault, in which Seagal may be involved, was also carried out by the Los Angeles police.

The Los Angeles Attorney's Office reported that the case was not closed and is still under consideration. Other details in the prosecutor's office refused to inform.

In the Beverly Hills Police, the question of what stage the Seagal case is in was answered evasively.

“We have received 12 allegations of sexual offenses involving members of the entertainment industry. We take this data very seriously and actively review it. To ensure the necessary level of investigation, we will not disclose any details. All evidence will be turned over to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office,” said Beverly Hills Police Chief Elizabeth Albanese.

Diplomat or not

Now Seagal’s status has changed: he is a special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Such status implies obtaining diplomatic immunity in the host country, including protection from criminal prosecution and testimony.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 guarantees diplomatic immunity to a person who, by virtue of his position, is directly involved in the exercise of representative functions. Such a person enjoys complete immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State. It also enjoys immunity from civil and administrative jurisdiction, except in a few cases provided for by the Vienna Convention. Immunity can only be revoked by the accrediting state—in this case, Russia.

However, Seagal's case is much more complicated. Firstly, he is a citizen of the United States, the host country where he must perform diplomatic functions. The Vienna Convention does not restrict citizens of the host country from working for the diplomatic service of another country. However, the convention describes that a diplomatic agent enjoys immunity and inviolability only in respect of acts committed by him “in the performance of his functions.” Harassment on a film set is unlikely to fall under this definition, unless it is considered to be an exercise of “cultural connections.”

It was to this provision of the convention that the London court appealed, in 2016, rejecting a lawsuit by a Saudi businessman, Sheikh Walid Juffali, who tried to challenge the property claims of his ex-wife. Juffali received the status of permanent representative of the maritime organization of the state of Saint Lucia, but the court found that, although Juffali could be considered a diplomat, the division of property between spouses does not relate to diplomatic activity.

Secondly, Seagal’s work at the Foreign Ministry will be carried out “on a voluntary basis” and the question of whether he will have a diplomatic passport and all the accompanying privileges is still open. Seagal cannot be a career employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry, since he has several citizenships other than Russian, in particular, American and Serbian. Formally, Seagal’s post is not an official position, since it is not paid, and therefore he is not entitled to diplomatic attributes.

Official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, answering the relevant question, said that at the moment Seagal does not have a diplomatic passport and immunity. When asked whether he could receive this immunity in the future, Zakharova did not answer. According to her, immunity in the United States is guaranteed by the type of visa that is issued to diplomats, but Seagal does not need a visa.

However, Zakharova did not rule out that in the future he could be issued a passport.

“Can this be? Yes, this can happen if a decision is made about the feasibility, if this is necessary in the work process. When the question of feasibility arises in principle, then we will decide,” Zakharova said.

A Russian diplomatic passport is issued to diplomatic employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the President of Russia, senators, State Duma deputies and other persons, the list of whom is approved by the President. According to the law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation,” this list is compiled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Family members of Russian ambassadors and representatives abroad also receive diplomatic passports. It is used for work trips.

However, even obtaining a diplomatic passport does not automatically mean obtaining diplomatic immunity in the host country.

“Everything will depend on whether the State Department accredits him or not as a goodwill ambassador. Diplomatic immunity arises not directly from the presence of a diplomatic passport, but from whether the receiving state recognizes a particular person as performing diplomatic official duties,” explained Oleg Lemeshko, international lawyer at Elma Global.

The State Department has not yet responded to the request whether Segal intends to recognize the representational functions.

In addition, according to Lemeshko, US legislation is such that for the holder of American citizenship in the United States, it is the main one before international conventions - that is, first of all, the United States will judge Seagal according to American laws, and secondly, look at his diplomatic status.

“If he had renounced American citizenship, the likelihood of immunity would have been higher,” the expert explained.

The Russian Foreign Ministry does not consider the problem of charges of harassment and a possible criminal case against Seagal.

“We must proceed from the presumption of innocence. With all the extraterritoriality of what is happening now in the United States, political orders, etc., this is an unshakable principle that must be followed,” Zakharova said.

Фото: Depositphotos

Charges

Recall that in early August, Los Angeles County (California) District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation into reports of sexual harassment by Stephen Seagal.

The first woman to make a public accusation of rape Seagal was Regina Simons. In December 2017, she filed a complaint with the Los Angeles police.

According to Simons, she met the actor on the set of the film In Mortal Danger (1994), when she was 18 years old. Seagal invited her to a party at his Beverly Hills home. Arriving at the place, she discovered that she was the only guest. According to her, Seagal took her to a room and raped her.

Prior to that, there were accusations of an actor in harassment and other crimes of a sexual nature. In 2010, the former model and former assistant of the Hollywood actor Cayden Nguyen filed a lawsuit against him, accusing him not only of sexual harassment, but also of the fact that the actor kept the girls in sexual slavery. She claimed that Segal had two Russian girls under his command, available to his comfort at any time of the day.

In November 2017, the actress Porsche de Rossi said that at the final audition for Seagal's film, she was the victim of sexual harassment by the actor. Seagal allegedly unzipped his pants, saying that “chemistry should arise” between the actors on the set.

Actress Jenny McCarthy said that Seagal tried to force her to take off her clothes during a casting, although there were no nudity scenes in the script. To the actress’s objection, he stated that this role involves “nudity outside of filming.”

In October 2017, another actress, Lisa Guerrero, said that in 1997, Seagal invited her to his home to audition for the film Hellfire. When she arrived, Seagal was wearing a silk kimono and hinted at intimacy. Soon she received a call from her agent, who informed her of an invitation to another “private rehearsal.” Guerrero refused this offer, after which she was given only a minor role. During filming, Seagal again invited her to retire to the dressing room. When the actress refused, all episodes with her were cut from the film.

Actress Julianne Margulis also accused Stephen Seagal of sexual harassment. She said that in 1989, the actor invited her to his room in the hotel to cast there for a new film. The meeting was planned in the presence of a casting manager, and Margulis agreed. But when she entered the room, she discovered that Seagal was there alone, also armed with a pistol.

Seagal suggested telling the actress about her fate using the lines on her palm. Margulis quickly ended the meeting and left the room. Shortly after this episode, Julianna Margulies received her first film role from Steven Seagal - she was cast as a prostitute in the film For Justice, in which Seagal played a detective. Margulies claims that during the filming process she was always afraid to be alone with Seagal.

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