Letters | 29 August 2013

Reasons to try a tyrant

Sir: The premise of Douglas Murray’s otherwise compelling essay (‘Dictating terms’, 25 August) is mistaken. He doubts whether the conviction of malevolent dictators by the International Criminal Court acts as a deterrent to other wicked leaders. Of course it does not. Nothing will deter a monster from iniquity. The principal objective of the ICC must therefore be simple retribution. Why create an offence if a transgression is met with impunity? Tyrants who commit crimes against humanity deserve punishment, not to deter others (even the gallows is unlikely to achieve that), but because they must suffer for their evil.

Murray contends that innocent lives might be saved if, instead of being prosecuted, these ogres were given sanctuary, as Idi Amin was in Saudi Arabia. But this is cold comfort for their victims, or indeed anyone who yearns to see justice done. If the purpose is to eliminate a wicked leader, then his speedy dispatch — as with Caesar, Mussolini, and Gaddafi — would surely be a more efficient method.