Tuesday, October 09, 2007

John Howard and the death penalty

I wouldn't have expected John Howard to support the death penalty. But this is what he said regarding the Bali bombers:

"The idea that we would plead for the deferral of executions of people who murdered 88 Australians is distasteful to the entire community," Mr Howard said.
"I find it impossible myself as an Australian, as Prime Minister, and as an individual, to argue that those executions should not take place when they have murdered my fellow countrymen and women."
'PM slams Rudd over death penalty' - The Age
(The Labor Party's foreign affairs spokesperson, Robert McClelland, has promised that a Labor government will campaign against capital punishment in south-east Asia.)

I think this story from ABC News is worth a read: 'Bali bomber now campaigns to stop terrorism'

2 comments:

Electric Chikken said...

I think it's interesting how he justified it with the 'revenge' angle.

Not surprised that he threw a bit of patriotism in there, though :-)

John M said...

Yeah interesting that he can justify it by saying they murdered his countrymen, i suppose we should all just not give a stuff about people from other countries then. yeah right.
I am suprised more that he didn't justify it by simply calling them terrorists.
I can't see how our country can in any way support the death penalty anywhere. Even if it is for killing Australians.