9/11 conspirator Mounir el Motassadeq was convicted and sentenced by a German court today for his role in the murder of 3,066 people. His punishment: 15 years in prison, or 42 hours and 51 minutes for each life he helped destroy. He will be a free man before his 44th birthday.
Max Sawicky, our favorite labor-union-think-tank economist, seems to be shilling for the French this week. He is either (a) credulous enough to accept the French "anti-war" (keep Saddam in power) stance at face value, or (b) he is a closet believer in France's "blood for oil" doctrine of diplomacy -- as long as it is Iraqi blood that is flowing to ensure a steady stream of oil into TOTAL refineries.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 19, 2003 12:55 PMMounir el Motassadeq's shitty little sentence does not surprise me in the least. Even less surprising is the fact that according to the linked story, 15 years was the maximum sentence permitted by law. When I lived there (1987-88), I read of a case where two burglers at an indoor swimming pool in Hannover had ambushed the nightwatchman, thrown him in the pool, and pushed him underwater repeatedly, over a 30-minute period, until he finally drowned. The outraged judge told the defendants this was the most brutal, senseless crime he'd encountered in his entire career. Then he proceeded to sentence each of them to a whopping eight years behind bars. Or take everyone's favorite pacifist, Matthias Rust, who attempted to murder a young woman for refusing a date and/or not being impressed by his Red Square stunt two years earlier. That guy got sentenced to around 2 years, IIRC.
Germany is my Exhibit A for anyone in the U.S. who honestly believes that an end to the death penalty would result in all brutal murderers getting life without parole.
Posted by: Xrlq on February 19, 2003 04:27 PM