Dawkins & Hitchens: Arrest the pope

Two of the most high profile atheists/agnostics are calling for the arrest of the pope upon his visit to Great Britain this September. Lawyers for prominent writer and columnist Christopher Hitchens, and biologist Richard Dawkins confirmed this weekend that the two would like to see the Vatican leader charged. Working alongside British lawyers, the two men want the pope charged for his apparent role in covering-up countless cases throughout the world of sexual assault in the Catholic Church. The Vatican has always countered that the pope cannot be charged with any crimes as he is the head of a state, but not so say Hitchens and Dawkins, who argue that the Vatican has no representation at the United Nations.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer working for the two men, told The Guardian:

I'm convinced we can get over the threshold of immunity. The Vatican is not recognized as a state in international law. People assume that it has existed for time immemorial but it was a construct of Mussolini, and when the Vatican first applied to become a member of the UN, the US said no. So as a sop they were given the status of permanent observers rather than full members.

Hawkins denied that he would attempt to arrest the pope himself, but did blast the pope in an article for the Washington Post, saying that the Vatican leader is:

A leering old villain in a frock, who spent decades conspiring behind closed doors for the position he now holds; a man who believes he is infallible and acts the part; a man whose preaching of scientific falsehood is responsible for the deaths of countless AIDS victims in Africa; a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.

Hitchens meanwhile told The Sunday Times:

This man is not above or outside the law. The institutionalized concealment of child rape is a crime under any law and demands not private ceremonies of repentance or church-funded payoffs, but justice and punishment.