SYDNEY, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard created a political uproar Saturday, after suggesting a return to capital punishment.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Howard called for a national debate on reintroduction of the death penalty as a result of the emotional trials of the Bali bombers.
A spokesman for the Opposition Leader, Simon Crean, said he did not believe anyone was "proposing there is going to be extensive debate" about the death penalty, which was abolished in 1985.
Howard told Melbourne radio that while he did not personally support capital punishment for pragmatic reasons, there are a lot of people close to him who are in favor of it.
"I know lots of Australians who believe that a death penalty is appropriate and they are not barbaric, they're not insensitive, they're not vindictive, they're not vengeful, they're people who believe that if you take another's life deliberately then justice requires that your life be taken," he said.
