The teenage son of an Israeli official will not receive immunity after being detained for allegedly driving down a Sunny Isles Beach cop.
Avraham Gil, 19, was detained over the weekend on accusations of resisting an officer with violence and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, according to jail records.
Gil allegedly plowed his motorcycle into a police officer who was conducting a traffic stop, injuring the officer’s leg, according to an arrest document.
Gil’s defense attorney claimed in bail court on Sunday that Gil has diplomatic immunity since his father, Eli Gil, is an Israeli consul in Miami.
However, the State Department in Washington said in a statement that the kid does not qualify for immunity.
“The Department is aware of the event. “We can confirm that, as the dependent of an Israeli consular officer, the concerned individual does not have civil or criminal immunity,” the statement stated.
This wasn’t Gil’s first encounter with the law. Dashcam footage from New Year’s Eve showed Miami Shores Police stopping the 19-year-old for allegedly speeding and making an improper turn. Gil’s bodycam footage shows him asking the officer if he could phone his father.
Former federal prosecutor David Weinstein told NBC6 that whether or not Gil gets prosecuted depends on how they interpret the Geneva Conventions.
“Does this defendant’s father serve as a diplomatic agent, and is he the consul of the embassy? “If he is, he and his son will be immune from criminal prosecution,” he stated. “If he doesn’t fit squarely within that definition in the Vienna Convention, then his son doesn’t have diplomatic immunity because he doesn’t have diplomatic immunity, and he’d be treated like any other defendant.”