AUSTRALIA. PRIME MINISTER URGED TO OPPOSE DEATH PENALTY

Australia should publicly oppose the death penalty for terrorists if it expects to be taken seriously in its efforts to save Australians from death row, senior defence lawyer Lex Lasry said. Lasry, QC, who defended drug runner Nguyen Tuong Van until his execution by Singapore in 2005, urged the government to lobby against capital punishment for men such as Bali bomber Amrozi, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The government's failure to do so weakens its argument against the death penalty for Australian citizens, he said.
"Australia must declare internationally that it is firmly against the death penalty in all circumstances regardless of the person involved or the offence they committed," Lasry said in a lecture to Monash University Law Chambers in Melbourne. "If the Australian position on the death penalty is not an equal position of opposition in all circumstances, including the worst of the worst, then it's commitment to the UN protocol (to end the death penalty internationally) is compromised and no-one will take us seriously."