Waihopai Verdict—Jail the Judge and Jury!

Yesterday's acquittal of three Saddamite thugs on charges of burglary and wilful damage at the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) base at Waihopai marks a new low in the de-objectivising of the law, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.

"Hitherto it would have been regarded as unthinkable to defend a murderer on the grounds that he committed his murder with good intentions," Perigo observes. "The law rightly forbids murder, and that's that. Now, thanks to this half-wit jury and the judge who (mis)guided them, such a defence for murder could become commonplace and uncontroversial.

"The three apologists for Saddam Hussein said they were saving lives in Iraq by disrupting satellite transmissions. They claimed what they had done was right because it was done for the greater good. The trial judge 'reserved' a decision on that claim, meaning the acquittal must now be taken to the Court of Appeal if it is to be overturned.

"TV3 Sunrise host Oliver Driver has already suggested the Waihopai decision provides legal justification for going into bars and smashing pokie machines, on the grounds that they hurt problem gamblers and their families. He's not wrong. The decision provides legal justification for absolutely anything at all.

"This is not the Rule of Law but the Rule of Brutes, such as this trio of Catholics and Communists; this is not a case of the law being an ass. The judge who enabled this should be jailed for treason to the law he is sworn to uphold. The jury who went along with it should be jailed for morbid stupidity," Perigo concludes.

ENDS

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