To the Editor:
The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was put to death in September 1977. France abolished the death penalty in 1981 and it is now forbidden by the French constitution as well as several human rights treaties to which France is a party. Yet, France launched “massive” air strikes on ISIS, the extremist organization in Syria responsible for the attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people. Isn’t this a contradiction? Captured individual perpetrators are spared while every effort is made to eliminate their associates. Thankfully, the Boston Marathon bomber is on death row, but the U.S. failed to identify their associates and respond with “massive” force. Which country has it right? It appears both can only be half right. I’d ask Hamida Djandoubi but he’s dead.
George Dakin
Village of Winifred