http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2330622/Why-Drummer-Rigbys-killers-charged-treason.html Why Drummer Rigby's killers should be charged with treason
By Simon Heffer
PUBLISHED: 23:19, 24 May 2013 | UPDATED: 23:19, 24 May 2013
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We think of treason as a medieval crime associated with gruesome punishments such as hanging
We think of treason as a medieval crime associated with gruesome punishments such as hanging
Although we think of treason as a medieval crime ? associated with gruesome punishments such as hanging, drawing and quartering or boiling in oil ? the last trial for such an offence happened less than 70 years ago.
William Joyce, whose nightly ?Germany calling? broadcasts as Lord Haw Haw were designed to undermine national morale during World War II, was tried and executed for it in 1946.
The law of treason ? formulated in 1351 ? remains on the statute book specifically to protect the integrity of the state.
Its continued existence assumes that citizens have a legal duty to preserve the state that confers citizenship upon them, in return for the protection and support the state gives them.
One crime that constitutes treason is ?levying war against the sovereign in the realm?. Another is ?adhering to the sovereign?s enemies, giving them aid and comfort, in the realm or elsewhere?.
Furthermore, a law passed in 1848 defines the separate offence of treason felony as proceeding ?to levy war against the sovereign in order by force or constraint to compel her to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both houses or either House of Parliament?.
With this definition in mind, consider the words spoken by one of Drummer Lee Rigby?s assassins in Woolwich: ?You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don?t care about you . . . get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so all can live in peace. So leave our lands and we can all live in peace.?
On one level, this shocking attack was murder, plain and simple. But it was the murder of a man who was targeted precisely because he was a member of Her Majesty?s Armed Forces.
His killers, and those who support them, regard what they did as an act of holy war, or jihad.
This would mean that they are Britons waging war on other Britons, and on the British state. It is, quite obviously, an act of treason.
Rant: A man identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, brandishes a meat cleaver with bloodied hands near the scene of the killing
Britons waging war on Britons: A man identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, brandishes a meat cleaver with bloodied hands near the scene of the killing
Such people are the self-appointed, and self-declared, enemies of the sovereign. They are levying war against her, hoping to force her to change her measures and counsel.
One of the alleged assailants was born British. The other is a naturalised Briton.
Thus, in recognition of the enormity of their crime and in seeking to force the government of their own country to change its policies, they should be put on trial not just for murder, but for treason.
Brutal killing: Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who was murdered in Woolwich
Brutal killing: Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who was murdered in Woolwich
In terms of their sentence, this would make no difference. The death penalty for treason is in abeyance under the terms of the 1998 Human Rights Act, yet it can be reinstated ?in time of war or of imminent threat of war?.
Grief: A wellwisher outside the army barracks, 200 yards from where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed, by the huge - and growing - pile of flowers
They have committed a crime against their own country, and against a state that in various ways protects and succours them. The charges they face should reflect the peculiar offensiveness of that betrayal
Charging the pair with treason would be a wise way of sending two important messages at a time when this country has arguably become complacently tolerant of extremists in its midst.
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First, we must punish Britons as Britons, and make no allowance for their being of foreign birth or descent. By not using the treason laws against Islamic extremists, we seem to be making a special case of them, and continuing, wrongly, to imagine they are foreigners.
The fact is that they have not committed a crime against a ?foreign power?, as occasionally they might wish to believe. They have committed a crime against their own country, and against a state that in various ways protects and succours them.
The charges they face should reflect the peculiar offensiveness of that betrayal.
It is vital, in the interests of community relations, that ethnic minorities are encouraged to integrate as completely as possible into the culture and institutions of our country.
Prosecuting these men for treason would show we take the practice of integration as seriously as its principle ? and it would spike the racist guns of exploitative fanatics, such as the English Defence League.
Second, it is time the British state stopped cringing and started defending itself and its integrity as a democratic nation.
By not prosecuting for treason those who seek to overthrow it by anti-democratic and illegitimate means suggests that the authorities are ambivalent about whether Britain, and the British way of life and its values, survive at all.
It might be argued that these extremists would regard a charge of treason as a great victory, adding a dimension to their so-called martyrdom.
But we should not care less about what the extremists think. What we should worry about is that our country is willing to take the preservation of its rule of law, and its democracy, seriously.
Nick Clegg is deluded if he thinks his Lib Dems will form another coalition after the next election, presumably with Labour.
If Labour must snuggle up with anyone, it should consider bigger and more serious parties to link up with, such as the SNP or Ulster?s Democratic Unionists.
The Lib Dems are set to lose so many seats at the next election that their remaining MPs could meet with ease in a telephone box.
