Colombia may lift diplomatic immunity over killing

The Colombian embassy in London said yesterday that it would lift diplomatic immunity on two men questioned over a killing if the Crown Prosecution Service decided to press charges.

The relatives of Damien Broom, 23, who was stabbed to death in a scuffle, and their lawyer said the offer was worthless because continuing immunity for the men had meant that the police had been prevented from running the necessary investigation to bring any charges.

Yesterday family and friends of Mr Broom, who died after a scuffle outside a Tesco store in west London on 21 May, picketed the Colombian embassy in London, calling for the men's immunity to be ended.

Tony Blair raised the matter with the Colombian president-elect, Alvaro Uribe, during a visit to London. The Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane has summoned the country's charge d'affaires to press for immunity to be waived. A petition with 4,500 signatures was handed in to Downing Street.

The suspects, who still live in London, are a 44-year-old Colombian army sergeant working at the military attaché's office, and his son, 23, who benefits from immunity as a family member of a diplomat.

Standing under a banner saying "Justice for Damien", Mr Broom's widow, Leeonia, reflected that until the death of her husband she did not even know what the term "diplomatic immunity" meant. "I cannot believe that these two men can simply get away with what could be a murder charge because of these stupid rules," she said."Damien and I have an eight-month-old daughter, Kalesha, who is now fatherless. We have all been destroyed by what has happened."

Two days after the killing the Colombians told police that Mr Broom and a companion had tried to mug the sergeant's son, and that he and his father had acted in self-defence.