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=> QC uses Dirty Harry to defend torture
| QC uses Dirty Harry to defend torture |
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- Monday, May 23 2005, 4:41:59 (CEST) from 203.58.120.11 - ip11.ip120.ip58.ip203.sensis.com.au  Australia -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
QC uses Dirty Harry to defend torture By Angela O'Connor May 23, 2005 Torture is appropriate in extreme circumstances, according to Melbourne lawyer Peter Faris, QC, a former chairman of the National Crime Authority. Mr Faris said there was much hysteria about the issue raised in The Age last week. A heated debate was sparked by an Age report that two Victorian legal academics were to publish an article arguing that when many lives are in imminent danger, "all forms of harm" may be inflicted on the suspect, even if this resulted in "annihilation". Torture should be legalised, even if it causes the death of innocent people, said the paper by the head of Deakin University's law school, Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin law lecturer Julie Clarke. Mr Faris, who said he had no personal or professional connections with Professor Bagaric or Mrs Clarke, said he believed the issue was raised to shut down the debate. He said The Age wanted to show "what terrible people these lawyers are at Deakin and what terrible things they are teaching our law students. Shock horror. 'Professor calls for torture'. I don't think it was designed to put it on the agenda. I think it was designed to show what terrible people these right-wing professors are." In his blog www.farisqc.com, Mr Faris said the question was "Is torture ever acceptable?" His answer was "yes, in some circumstances". He wrote: "An al-Qaeda cell in New York has a working nuclear device which it is about to detonate. Millions will die. The authorities capture a member of the group. Torture is acceptable." And also: "A psychopathic murderer has buried a teenage girl alive and he is captured by the police. He refuses to say where she is. He taunts the police with his knowledge. Torture is acceptable to find the girl and to save her life." Mr Faris also used an example from the film Dirty Harry. "In the end, reconsider my security example and ask this question of yourself: Faced with the choice, would I choose that 2 million people die in the nuclear destruction of New York rather than apply torture to a person to obtain information to prevent the disaster? Death or torture?" he said. "This is a serious issue. It's a moral issue. It's an ethical issue. It's a matter for proper public debate and it should be on the table." The chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, Lex Lasry, QC, yesterday rejected Mr Faris' entrance into the debate. "Mr Faris' suggestion that the use of torture could arguably be an acceptable tool in the investigation of some serious crimes, based on the film Dirty Harry, is bizarre and we, of course, reject it," he said. "There are a number of important issues affecting the criminal justice system being debated at present without being diverted by some ludicrous concept of introducing legalised torture by police as an investigative technique." --------------------- |
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