Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

DIPLOMATIC INVIOLABILITY • 147ish attorney general to “certify out” cases that were claimed not toinvolve terrorist offenses; these cases would then require jury trials.In 1995 alone, 932 of 1,234 such applications were granted. Of the418 cases not removed from Diplock courts, the rate of conviction forthose who pleaded not guilty was only 40 percent. Whenever judgesfound a defendant guilty in the Diplock courts, they were required toprovide a written opinion to explain their reasoning, and the verdictcould then be appealed. In this way those charged with terrorist offenseswould continue to enjoy rights of due process despite the lackof a jury.Following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, prosecutions in theDiplock courts fell to about 60 each year. The Northern Ireland Officeannounced on 1 August 2005 that these courts would be phasedout and in August 2006 announced that the courts would be abolishedby July 2007.DIPLOMATIC INVIOLABILITY. According to statistics of the Officefor Combating Terrorism of the U.S. Department of State, diplomats,their families, and others attached to them have increasinglybecome favored targets of terrorist attacks. In 1975 over 30 percent ofterrorist attacks were directed at diplomats; in 1980 this figure rose to54 percent. Several of these attacks have involved hostage-barricadesituations, such as the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on 4November 1979 or the Peruvian Japanese embassy hostage crisisin Lima, Peru, on 17 December 1996, while others have involvedbombings with great loss of life, such as the 18 April 1983 bombingof the U.S. embassy in West Beirut and the 7 August 1999 East AfricanU.S. embassy attacks that took place simultaneously in Nairobi,Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.To implement the New York Convention (the UN Conventionon the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against InternationallyProtected Persons, Including Diplomatic Agents, adopted on14 December 1973), Title 18 of the U.S. Code was amended on 8October 1976 to make attacks upon, or threats against, diplomatswithin the United States a federal felony and to allow its enforcementby whatever federal, state, or local agency is needed, whethercivilian or military. Following the U.S. embassy seizure in Tehran,the UN Convention Against the Taking of Hostages was adopted on17 December 1979 and ratified by the United States on 4 September