The (London) Times reports Richard Dawkins: I will arrest Pope Benedict XVI.
"Richard Dawkins, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain ‘for crimes against humanity’. Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998."
If this were more than a publicity stunt, I think they shouldn't have publicized it before trying to arrest him. There is this interesting legal point: "Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations."
1 comment:
It might not matter if he wasn't a head of state as recognized by the United Nations, but has Great Britain recognized the Holy See?
I know it is bad and all, and I provide no defense because I don't know the whole story (nor does anyone probably), but there is a slight difference in what Pope Benedict has done and what Pinochet had done.
I wish Dawkins, fundementalist atheists, good luck with his stunt. I tend not to be a big fan of fanaticism at the end of any of the various spectrums.
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