A question I have reagarding the DSK case

[Kevin]

Hypothetically if Dominique Strass Kahn was President of France and had he been accused of the crimes he is alleged to have committed in NYC. What would be the legal procedure for dealing with this both here and in France?

Because thinking of diplomatic immunity, I have both heard and read that this has it's limit's as seen in a number of recent cases.

For example, A Georgian diplomat in a fatal DWI accident had his revoked so he could be tried on charges of manslaughter. So did a Saudi man accused of killing his American girlfriend. As well as a diplomat from the UAE who was caught and fled the US from an online sexual predator sting. But just thinking such an unprecedented case of a foreign leader would be quite complex to say the least no doubt.

Any insight into my question on this?

[Liberté]

Strauss-Kahn would likely have less in the way of diplomatic immunity if he were President of France than he had in his real-life position, actually. Heads of State, as far as I'm aware, are not automatically afforded the total protection of diplomatic immunity, as that might make war crimes prosecution (just to use an example) rather messy.

[Bacon King]

Actually, he does effectively have a degree of diplomatic immunity. Also, heads of state don't get diplomatic immunity, only the diplomatic staff of nations and big international organizations like the UN and World Bank.

Also the immunity isn't absolute. If this happened while he was (hypothetically) the French ambassador to the US, then the French government could either rescind his immunity or bring him to trial in France for the crime. There's no <I>obligation</I> for them to do so, but even if they hypothetically weren't willing the international community would give them hell over it.