The deputy high commissioner of an Asian country has claimed a Pretoria couple is trying to blackmail him after his dog allegedly bit a woman on the leg, according to a report on Tuesday.
According to The Star, Marianne Cassels claimed she was attacked by the dog while cycling in February.
She told the newspaper that the Asian couple walking the dog and a domestic worker ran to help her. She later learnt that the Asian man, who owned the dog, was a diplomat.
Cassels reportedly would not identify the country he was from because the international relations department had told her she could be charged under the Diplomatic Immunity Act if she embarrassed him.
According to the newspaper, she and her husband Neill tried to get the diplomat to own up to what had happened, and to pay the bills their medical aid would not cover for her injury.
However, the diplomat had reportedly claimed in an e-mail that Cassels had been unable to maintain the "required distance from the dog", which started barking when she startled it, and that her injury was caused by her falling off her bicycle.
The Star reported that the diplomat had informed the department of international relations that the couple was trying to blackmail him.
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