Police in the nation’s capital say diplomatic immunity won’t keep them from investigating a “brutal attack” on “peaceful protesters” Tuesday by men believed to be bodyguards for visiting Turkish President Recep Erdogan.
Four international law experts, three of them former legal advisers at the State Department, tell U.S. News that if police identify the assailants, they may be able to make criminal charges stick, even if the men are on the Turkish government payroll.
Footage from
the melee shows men mostly in suits, some reportedly armed, bypassing police officers separating pro- and anti-Erdogan activists. The men physically attack a group of protesters in Sheridan Circle near the Turkish Embassy, repeatedly kicking some.
A police officer and 11 other people were injured, authorities say, including one critically. The protest group included Armenian and Kurdish activists opposed to Erdogan, two of whom were arrested in the immediate aftermath. One was charged with aggravated assault and the other with assaulting an officer.
Peter Newsham, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department in the nation’s capital, said at a press conference Wednesday that some of the men being armed made controlling the situation difficult, perhaps explaining why there were not more immediate arrests.
“We witnessed what appeared to be a brutal attack on peaceful protesters,” Newsham said, echoing condemnation from politicians and
the State Department a day after Erdogan’s visit to the White House.
Newsham said police had high-quality footage of the incident and already had a good idea of who some of the alleged attackers were. He said the police department was in contact with the State Department about the case.
“We are going to pursue everything that’s within our legal power to hold the folks that were responsible accountable for their actions,” Newsham said.
“There could be a diplomatic immunity issue, but that won’t prevent us from doing what we need to do,” he said. “That’s not something that we tolerate here in Washington, D.C.”
