Unwanted Australians !

It seems a classic example of the boomerang coming back and delivering an unexpected blow to the thrower. Neil Prakash was born in Melbourne and is now twenty-seven years old.   When Islamic State was formed he embraced their savage ideology, left Australia and became one of their recruiters. In particular, he became a media celebrity in Syria and Iraq and was hailed as the IS poster boy seeking to influence young Australian men to abandon their country and join the fight in the middle east.

Put plainly, Neil Prakash is a terrorist.  He held a high position in the IS management team and as such bears responsibility for the crimes they committed on the people they enslaved.  This included the summary execution of those who did not readily accept their twisted view of Islam and the sale of captured women in the slave markets that still exist in that part of the world.

Prakash had a direct influence on several terrorist attacks here on Australian soil, resulting in Australia issuing an arrest warrant for his capture in 2015.  At that stage, IS had captured a lot of territory and had a growing accumulation of people in its grasp.  It was not reticent in filming the repression it inflicted and waging a war of almost unimaginable savagery.

When the tide began to turn those IS " masters " began to fear the repercussions from their freed victims and many headed for the border with surrounding countries.  Prakash got caught trying to slip into Turkey in October, 2016 and is now awaiting trial, with the prospect of a long prison term.
A queue of other countries have extradition orders seeking his presence to answer for the crimes he committed in their countries.

Prakash is pleading for mercy and wants to be returned to Australia.  We don't want him and along with about sixteen other terrorists he was stripped of his Australian citizenship.  Strangely, an extradition order is in place to put him before an  Australian court but that is unlikely to happen before the middle of this century.

Prakash - and other IS recruits - made war on the country of their birth and people who committed that crime during the second world war were usually executed as war criminals. Stripping away citizenship rights is controversial but it does seem to fit the crime for which Prakash is accused. He successfully persuaded a number of innocent young Australian men to sacrifice their lives in a foreign war and others to attempt to commit murder on Australian streets.  As a consequence, Australia has now renounced his claim to live amongst us.

This breaks new ground.  Australian citizenship is an honour that comes with mutual obligations. Joining in a foreign war against the citizenship holders country of birth is probably the ultimate reason for that right to be rescinded.   It should make no difference whether that citizenship was gained by birth in the country, or as a gift exchanged with a migrant for an oath of fidelity.

Neil Prakash chose to become a stateless person.  We no longer apply the death penalty for heinous crime.   If this terrorist ever comes before an Australian court he will serve his sentence - and then be deported.