Australians Rage Against Arson Suspect

A man, named Brendan Sokaluk, was accused of setting the deadly fires that had killed at least 189 people and burned down at least 640 homes across the southern Australia this month. The arsonist has been placed in a protective custody to be kept safe from widespread fury and anger that are raising among people after his identity was made public.

A court at first said that his identity was to be withheld as people's fury can lead to revenge on his family. However, several Australian newspapers published his identity that included detailed profiles, only without his name.

Worried of the public outrage that could endanger Mr. Sokaluk's family, his defense lawyer, Helen Spowart, attempted to convince a judge on Monday that Mr. Sokaluk's identity should remain secret. However, she failed to prevent his identity from being revealed, but was successful in banning publication of his photographs. The judge said, "whatever the court does, his identity will be well known within days. Those suspected of vigilantism would not be prevented from behaving in an abhorrent way simply by suppressing his mane.” The judge agreed to ban publication of his photographs and home address.

According to a local news media, thousands of messages were shared on Facebook calling for torture and death penalty on the arsonist. One of them declares, "Brendan Sokaluk, the Victoria Bushfires Arsonist, must burn in hell." The messages and groups on Facebook were removed under the Facebook's code of conduct and because of the Victoria State Police Department's request to pull down the posts. The department understood the anger expressed by people, saying they were "understandably angry". At the same time, however, they also requested that they “need to let police do their job thoroughly and to allow the correct justice procedures take place.”

Opinion: I believe it is controversial to decide whether the press should reveal the arsonist's profiles or not because the decision can directly relate to the matter of life and death of the arsonist's family and the arsonist himself. I think that the criminal should be judged through a proper and fair justice procedure although the man deserves death penalty or something even worse as those messages and posts on Facebook say. The similar case took place in Korea. Photographs of a man accused of serial murders were published by several newspapers. There were some debates whether it was right to make the criminal's photographs public because people like the murderer's family or acquaintances who are not involved in the crimes, can be targets of revenge. As well, some people argued that even a criminal has a right to control the commercial use of his identity such as his name and images. I was also shocked when I heard that the image was published because it was the first time ever the Korean police has allowed the publication of criminal's photographs. Although I was infuriated by the murderer, I felt sorry when I was thinking of his children who will also face prejudice in their lives just because of his father's wrongdoings.