New York Examiner Won’t Disclose Cause of Russian Envoy’s Death

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/world/americas/vitaly-churkin-united-nations.html

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UNITED NATIONS — A terse note from the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner on Friday saying that it could not disclose the “cause and manner” of a senior Russian diplomat’s death in February set off a flood of conspiratorial posts on Twitter, but both Russian and American officials said the announcement was a matter of diplomatic protocol.

“In order to comply with international law and protocol, the New York City Law Department has instructed the Office of Chief Medical Examiner to not publicly disclose the cause and manner of death of Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations,” the statement read. “As outlined in formal requests from the United States Department of State, Ambassador Churkin’s diplomatic immunity survives his death.”

The State Department said it could not say any more about the results of the autopsy, which was conducted to determine why Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin died on Feb. 20. And the United States Mission to the United Nations said, through a spokesman, that it was “not in a position to comment or to provide any details on the autopsy consistent with our obligations under the Headquarters Agreement between the United States and the United Nations.”

In fact, it is not unusual for the United States, as the host country, to leave it to a diplomat’s home country to announce a cause of death. That was the case when a Nigerian diplomat died in 2015 in Washington, for instance.

Mr. Churkin died suddenly after collapsing in the Russian mission on the East Side of Manhattan. The police at the time said they did not suspect foul play, noting that he suffered from heart ailments. The medical examiner’s office carried out an autopsy, which is standard procedure. The medical examiner’s reference to “diplomatic immunity” raised an additional question: How could a dead man could enjoy any immunity at all?

In fact, diplomatic immunity and privileges would apply to Mr. Churkin’s immediate family members “for a reasonable period of time,” according to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. A spokesman for the Russian mission commended the decision to not release the autopsy results, saying that it “fully meets the inviolability of private life and diplomatic immunity.”