Diplomatic immunity is no carte blanche, court tells father in parental dispute

A family court has told a diplomat stationed in Malta that he cannot claim diplomatic immunity to defy a court order and prevent his divorced wife from seeing their sons.

In a decision delivered on Friday, the court confirmed a warrant of prohibitory injunction that the mother had sought and effectively stopped the man, who works at Spain’s embassy, from travelling out of Malta with one of the couple’s minor sons.

The other child had already been taken out of the island, allegedly without the mother’s consent. 

In July, the woman had turned to the courts to stop her estranged husband from taking their other child out of the country, and obtained an injuction that was provisionally upheld by the court. 

But the father hit back, claiming that his diplomatic status meant that he could not be bound by the civil jurisdiction of a foreign court. 

The couple were married in 2006 and have since divorced.

When the father was posted to Malta, his ex-wife also relocated to the island so as to be close to their sons, now aged 11 and 13,  who live with the father.

A Maltese family court gave her the right to see the children every week while supervised. 

However, in August, on the eve of one...