Those people who have deliberately engaged in activities which result in the taking of life, whether they be Bali bombers or Australian citizens who have engaged in drug running, have already forfeited any claim to be treated with clemency when given the death penalty.

The government should therefore have a consistent policy on the matter and refrain from making representations for Australian citizens who have broken the laws of other countries in this regard.

David

This fellow makes me sick.

I’m opposed to the death penalty in all but a few circumstances: terrorism and murder of law-enforcement officers come to mind as good reasons to apply the death penalty.

How anyone – particularly an Australian – can have sympathy for the Bali bombers, and think that Australia should lobby against their well-deserved death by firing squad, is beyond me. These bastards murdered innocent Australians and others; even though their lunatic spiritual leader claimed in today’s Australian that it was a plot by the CIA and Australia. He should removed from earth too. And it’s high time Indonesia got on with the job of ridding the world of the grinning murderers directly responsible for the bombings.

“Rudd has even adopted his predecessor’s tactic that the penalty is a matter for the Indonesians”, because he is right. Like Howard, Rudd knows the difference between right and wrong in matters like this, at least.

People like this author, who prates about the ‘human rights’ of mass murderers have no interest in the human rights of the victims of these animals.

Even in with the hanging of an Australian drug dealer, Tim Goodwin has no respect for the sovereign rights of another country. I, like many others, think that the death penalty for drug smuggling is over the top; a prison sentence such as another Australian is currently serving is more than adequate. But, that is not the way Indonesia and Singapore see it, and they are perfectly entitled to run their own country they way they see fit. Their citizens cop the same treatment; foreigners should not be treated better. Nobody is forcing anyone to go to Singapore to smuggle drugs out.

There is nothing hypocritical about the current Australian Government’s attitude. We don’t execute anyone here, and only an idiot would suggest that we have the right to interfere in another country’s policy.

Let’s hear more about the rights of victims, and less about the mythical rights of perpetrators

The bombers should be shown clemency, and let off with a suspended sentence (suspended from a large oak beam, by a strong hempen rope).

Mr Right

I disagree with your view that the death penalty should apply in some circumstances, but you are at least consistent – you argue that it should apply to Australians and foreigners, here and abroad.

The point of the article is that the Australian government does not display this consistency. The issue is not about having “sympathy” for the Bali bombers, but whether we are consistent or hypocritical in applying a declared principle of the Australian Government – opposition to the death penalty – in cases where the criminals' victims are Australians as well as where the criminals are Australians.

The double standards the article highlights are clear, and they undermine the credibility and moral authority of the Australian Government

He's right. We should recall our ambassador to Washington immediately.

There are three issues in my mind.

In spite of the evidence presented, the convicted bombers may not have been directly responsible. Unlikely, but possible. False confessions happen, with criminals directly responsible staying free. It would not be the first time those given the ultimate sentence were misidentified at law and covered the trail.

They have made it plain that they want to be martyrs. Knowing that it will happen is making them happy. If they were to be comfortably looked after for the rest of their days, confined with no links to those of similar persuasion, it would be a cause for great disappointment and unhappiness - to them and their kind. Execution will foster growth rather than reduction of motivation for such fundamentalist-generated crimes.

Kevin Rudd’s stance in supporting execution in this particular situation is that of a hypocrite. Worse, it portrays Australia as having intolerable arrogance in foreign affairs – we are happy to have other nationalities killed, but not our own.