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A travel document issued by a state to the members of its diplomatic service and their families, and also to government ministers (sense 3) and their families and, where relevant, to royal personages. In some states diplomats may be allowed to keep their diplomatic passports after their retirement; and favoured political figures may also be granted a ‘diplomatic passport’. The holder of such a document may, as a matter of practice rather than of right, expect speedy and simplified treatment by customs and police officials at state borders. However, such a passport does not entitle the holder to diplomatic privileges and immunities, as the former president of Chile, General Pinochet, discovered following his arrest in London in October 1998. Britain did not issue the members of its diplomatic service with diplomatic passports until 1995. See also laisser passer. |
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