Russia is mistreating the suspects in the Moscow terror attack. Should we care?

 

The four suspects in the Moscow terror attack case. The Independent. 

The suspects in the Moscow terror attack that left at least 137 people dead have been mistreated. The Independent. Graphic video has shown the suspects being tortured by Russian authorities. One suspect had his ear cut off and was almost forced to eat it. Another suspect had a car battery hooked up to his genitals and another was beaten so badly his eye was destroyed. At a hearing the men showed obvious signs of beatings with one suspect wheeled in a wheelchair. Calls are being made for the men to face the death penalty, which Russia has had a moratorium on since the 1990's, though the law is still on the books. 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings on the treatment of these men. On the one hand I have very little sympathy for the men themselves given their actions. They killed more than 100 people and injured even more and they didn't really do it for ideological reasons, they did it for money. They absolutely deserve to die because of what they have done. 

But their treatment is pretty bad. Torturing these men is a bit over the top. It's pretty beyond the pale to cut someone's ear off or shocking their genitals. Especially since they don't seem to be doing it for intelligence gathering purposes. The men have cooperated and likely told the Russians everything they know, which probably isn't much.

I have argued in the past that torture could be justified to prevent a serious terror attack, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Instead it's torture for the sake of punishment, which is not something I support. It's not something we should be doing at this point in history. Even if these terrorists probably do deserve it, I don't like the idea of a government deciding that they should punish people extrajudicially. Especially if they are currently involved in a war, I would hate to see Ukrainian POW's treated this way when they are following the rules of war. 

To be fair, these men aren't protected by the rules of war like Ukrainian POW's. Terrorists aren't covered by the Geneva convention so this wasn't a war crime. Indeed, it was probably legal under Russia's laws, and even if it wasn't, no prosecutor was going to charge anyone for this. 

There is the idea that Russia is doing this to deter further attacks, but I don't know if it would even matter. A guy that will help kill 137 people for $5000 is not going to be deterred from a terror attack because Russia cut someone's ear off, let alone a true ISIS believer. At most it might affect the targeting as a terror cell might be more willing to attack a country that doesn't do these things. But the true ISIS believers are not going to care at all, and given that ISIS hates Russia I don't see this deterring them at all.  

As for the death penalty, I would be in support of it in this case. Surprisingly Russia has had a moratorium on the death penalty but they could absolutely bring it back for these men. And given their actions I have zero problem with them being put to death. And I think even most anti-death penalty activists would give pause in this case. Still, I don't think these men will have much of a fair trial, which is important even if the guilt of these men isn't really in doubt. 

It does seem that Russia has had enough, both with terrorism and the Ukraine war in general. Their treatment of these men is sending a clear message, don't mess with Russia. And they have absolutely stepped up their attacks in Ukraine. I'm afraid that the bear has absolutely come out of its cave and is angry as hell. 

Finally, I do think that this story is going to be about as consequential as the October 7th attacks in Israel. That attack started a huge war that is still ongoing. Though the repercussions for this attack isn't clear it does seem very likely that we will see a major wave of terrorism again. And Russia is blaming Ukraine, regardless if they have any guilt in the plot or not. I'm not sure either way, I don't trust either side to tell the truth. But I do think that things are not going to calm down for awhile..