French police protested on Monday after Hannibal, the son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi, was allowed to go free after being clocked at more than 139kph on the Champs-Elysées.
”This is a genuine scandal,” said Frédéric Lagache of the biggest police union, Alliance, when it emerged that Gadaffi (28) had not been charged after he presented his diplomatic passport.
”The behaviour of people who represent their country should be exemplary and above reproach,” he said.
”There is a real problem here: diplomatic immunity should not mean that certain people simply become above the law.”
Gadaffi was stopped in his Porsche at 2.45am on Saturday, a police spokesperson said.
He had been caught driving down France’s most famous avenue at more than three times the legal speed limit, jumping at least three red lights in the process.
A bodyguard travelling with Gadaffi tried to stop the officers questioning him. Two separate cars, carrying six more guards, arrived on the scene ”very quickly”, a police spokesperson said.
After police reinforcements arrived, ”things got quite heated quite fast”, the spokesperson added.
”There was a bit of a scuffle. One of the officers took a heavy punch; he’s been given a doctor’s certificate ordering him not to go back to work for four days.”
Le Figaro newspaper quoted police as saying the interior of Gadaffi’s car smelled of alcohol and that he was ”unable to speak coherently”.
A â,¬4 500 police radio transmitter was wrecked during the fight.
Two bodyguards were arrested but released on Saturday morning after a visit from Gadaffi and officials from the Libyan embassy who reportedly apologised for the incident.
One of the security men, who was not identified, is due to appear in court on October 15 charged with causing bodily harm to a police officer.
Three years ago, Gadaffi was accused of attacking three Italian policemen with a fire extinguisher while on holiday in a luxury hotel in Rome. He is also alleged to have been involved in a brawl in Rome that reportedly left six photographers in hospital.
The incident is unlikely to endear him to his father, who is trying to repair strained relations with Europe and the US. The EU agreed last week to lift all sanctions on Libya, after Washington revoked a trade embargo to reward Tripoli for renouncing weapons of mass destruction. – Guardian Unlimited Â