Islamist militant pleads guilty at ICC to destroying ancient shrines

[Bat-shit]

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;50939207]Maybe I'm weird or something, and yeah he should absolutely serve out his sentence, but if he's asking for forgiveness why not give it? Let the sentence be penance.[/QUOTE]

Well yeah, I'm sure even killers (either accidental or otherwise) exist who would never kill again because they felt so bad and remorseful about it, so why hold them any longer than necessary?

Good question indeed, but the actual reason is there are defined lengths of jail time for different crimes so they have to go by those "guidelines" (aka the LAWS) when sentencing someone in court, obviously. I guess they could pardon someone, but not so sure in the case of war crimes, theres no statute of limitation either. (I.E. even a 90 year old will face same sentence for a war crime committed 60 years ago, like with the Nazi veterans.)

[Sgt. Napalm]

I didn't say pardon him. I said the exact opposite. I said to let him serve out his sentence. But there's no reason to call for the dude's death in my opinion. My thinking is that once he serves out his sentence we should bestow some level of forgiveness, for the sake of international healing.

[Bat-shit]

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;50939900]I didn't say pardon him. I said the exact opposite. I said to let him serve out his sentence. But there's no reason to call for the dude's death in my opinion. My thinking is that once he serves out his sentence we should bestow some level of forgiveness, for the sake of international healing.[/QUOTE]

I think forgiveness is more of a personal thing.

I can forgive you, but I (or the state/particular court) will still punish you in accordance to the law. So I'd say forgiveness is irrelevant from a legal standpoint.

Or maybe you're thinking about encouraging ex-war criminals to get back into working and living in society, offer them like equal opportunities, and not have their positive individual freedoms restricted after serving their time? Yeah good luck with that since there are not many such programs in place, plus you can't expect the same level of forgiveness from everyone because you know, international healing? Who gives a flying fuck.

[spiritlol]

[QUOTE=MagicCookie948;50934120]I don't really think martyrs apply to IS - there's no way that anyone in their right mind would sympathize with them. Not that I think he should be killed, but he should be put in prison for a very long time - I don't care if he's sorry, he chose to do this.[/QUOTE]

If by IS you mean isis I think you missed both the article and post clarifying he is not a member of Isis.

Regardless, the idea is not to let him off free for confessing, just a lighter sentence. Do you know how much international justice would progress if people weren't afraid to actually confess willingly? It's not exactly cheap or effective to pursue international charges with all the politics involved.