Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A former leader of the Liberal Democrats made similar comments about the killing of Osama Bin Laden to those made by Jeremy Corbyn, it has emerged.
After Mr Bin Laden’s death Paddy Ashdown appeared on BBC’s Question Time programme and described the Al Qaeda leader’s “execution” without a trial as “wholly, wholly, wholly wrong”.
The comparison between Lord Ashdown’s comments and Mr Corbyn’s could be embarrassing for the Liberal Democrats, whose current leader Tim Farron branded the Labour leadership frontrunner’s view “utterly wrong”.
“Let me make this very clear: I belong to a country which was founded on the principle of the exercise of the due process of law. I am dedicated to that I have to say to you that it is not a good enough excuse to say that we will not follow due process because it’s too difficult,” the former leader told the programme in May 2011.
“To take that position is to undermine the very principle on which this country stands and to which I am dedicated. If you allow someone to be executed because the due process of law is too difficult to follow, you take a very dangerous step in exactly the wrong direction.”
He later added: “The point that I really objected to was [the] point that he should have been executed. That it seems to me is wholly, wholly, wholly wrong.
Around the same time, Mr Corbyn appeared on Iranian TV channel Press TV to criticise the fact Mr Bin Laden was not put on trial.
He described the fact the US and its allies were “descending deeper and deeper” towards using torture and extra-judicial killings as “a tragedy”.
“There was no attempt whatsoever that I can see to arrest him, to put him on trial, to go through that process,” he said.
“This was an assassination attempt, and is yet another tragedy, upon a tragedy, upon a tragedy. The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. Tens of thousands of people have died.
“Torture has come back on to the world stage, been canonised virtually into law by Guantanamo and Bagram. Can't we learn some lessons from this? That we are just going to descend deeper and deeper…”
Lord Ashdown led the Liberal Democrats from their creation in 1988 until 1999.
Mr Corbyn’s words were reported again today exclusively by The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers as the Labour leadership contest draws to a close.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments