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August 01, 2004
Justice seen to be done?
You know the lunatics are running the asylum when you run across something like this item from the Scotsman. I wonder why our English National dailies aren't shouting about it? Could it be complicity?
I wonder how their Lordships in the Appeal Court can consider this either lawful or reasonable. Four men sent to prison for life 18 years ago are finally cleared by the Appeal Court and their sentences quashed - but then, a part of their compensation is withheld for their board and lodging while in jail! One of the four is dead - presumably the Home Office will try and claim his funeral expenses as well. In a similar case, another man also jailed for murder and cleared after ten years by the Appeal Court is also being made to pay for the board and lodging he "enjoyed" in jail. To me this is compounding the injury, this is not justice, this is not even a parody of justice, this is outright injustice and manipulation of a set of rules dreamed up by some Whitehall incompetent to save his and his bosses' hides!
I am appalled that their Lordships upheld the Appeal, brought by Lord Brennan, the Home Office's QC, on behalf of the Home Secretary.
It is the equivalent of the hostages taken in the Lebanon in the 1980's being sent bills by their kidnappers for their "holiday accommodations" or even of al Qaeda sending the bill for their murdered hostages' ritual slaughter. It is sick, it is a disgrace upon our society, and the perpetrators of this injustice should be exposed and thrown out of offices and posts!
Posted by The Gray Monk at August 1, 2004 11:22 AM
Comments
I am assured that in China, when someone is sentenced to death (by firing squad), the family is expected to pay for the bullet. That is the real meaning of "adding insult to injury".
Posted by: Ozguru at August 1, 2004 12:13 PM
Blunkett and co are in good company - its a similar deal offered to the families of those Christian kids who refused to "volunteer" during the Iran/Iraq war for the Suicide Battalions - which were exclusively Christian, drawn from both countries large Christian populations. Dictatorships are the same everywhere.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at August 1, 2004 09:52 PM