Reprisals feared as Bali Bombers executed
The fate of the men has become a source of controversy, with some relatives of the victims insisting that the death penalty was ‘anomalous’ with what they believed.
Last night relatives of the victims of the bombings said they did not believe justice had been achieved. Among them was Susanna Miller, of the Bali Bombing Victims Group, who on the eve of the reported executions told BBC Radio 4 that their deaths could provide a propaganda boost to jihadists in the south-east Asian state.
Miller, whose brother Dan died in the atrocity, said: ‘Capital punishment for jihadist terrorism seems particularly anomalous to me. It effectively provides a state-sponsored route to martyrdom. There are two strands to justice – one is to punish the deed and the other is to deter subsequent deeds.’
As a resident of a progressive muslim area of Indonesia who has been in Bali, I guess I can say I understand why conservative muslims, Christians, or others would be grossly offended by Bali partygoers, who rather shamelessly live it up, shirts (and sometimes bikinis) off and drunk in Indonesia. As a human being, the bombers acts were inexcusable. Reconciling these beliefs makes most sense in the light provided by the sentiments of victims’ family members, as quoted above.
Why do we EVER consider capital punishment to be anything other than state-sponsored murder?
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