Wednesday, August 16, 2006
What's the point?
The Times reports here on the proposed extradition of the alleged "terror mastermind" Rashid Rauf.
For me this seems a pointless excercise. It appears that the Pakistani authorities are happy for us to have access to him for questioning, and I imagine he is guilty of offences under Pakistani law. Bringing him back to Britain means he'll be charged and tried, but what sentence will he get? How long will he serve? Why should he cost the taxpayer more money?
No the best thing will be to leave him in Pakistan (after we've questioned him and obtained any information he has). Let the Pakistanis try him and let him be punished according to their laws. He's unlikely to get a more moderate punishment and he won't be a burden to the taxpayer.
Obviously there will have to be a trial here, but that can proceed without him being present, and although that would make it likely that any sentence (from a trial here) could not be served, the one thing it could do is remove his British citizenship.
In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't voluntarily renounced it. After all if he hates this country so much that he wants to plan such atrocities against us, surely he can't bear to be a part of Britain.
No, he no doubt wants to see some form of Islamic state, well let him now be tried and punished for his crimes by an Islamic state.
For me this seems a pointless excercise. It appears that the Pakistani authorities are happy for us to have access to him for questioning, and I imagine he is guilty of offences under Pakistani law. Bringing him back to Britain means he'll be charged and tried, but what sentence will he get? How long will he serve? Why should he cost the taxpayer more money?
No the best thing will be to leave him in Pakistan (after we've questioned him and obtained any information he has). Let the Pakistanis try him and let him be punished according to their laws. He's unlikely to get a more moderate punishment and he won't be a burden to the taxpayer.
Obviously there will have to be a trial here, but that can proceed without him being present, and although that would make it likely that any sentence (from a trial here) could not be served, the one thing it could do is remove his British citizenship.
In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't voluntarily renounced it. After all if he hates this country so much that he wants to plan such atrocities against us, surely he can't bear to be a part of Britain.
No, he no doubt wants to see some form of Islamic state, well let him now be tried and punished for his crimes by an Islamic state.
Tags: terrorism, extradition, punishment
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
