> Can you imagine, the government telling you to do something and then dragging you in front of a court after you do it :S The French agents were arrested by N

> Can you imagine, the government telling you to do something and then dragging you in front of a court after you do it :S The French agents were arrested by New Zealand, not France, and convicted in New Zealand. France also threw their weight around to avoid having their agents jailed for the term of their sentences, AFAIK. Beyond that, there's nothing wrong with holding responsible agents of the state who follow illegal orders (whether this was by French law, I can't speak to it). Many liberalized states, and particularly the militaries of those states, operate on the assumption that you must refuse to follow an illegal order. (Intelligence services, which caused the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, may have different rules, but fundamentally there's supposed to be a carve-out and an escalation process for addressing orders "beyond the rules"." An example from the United States: https://warontherocks.com/2017/07/when-can-a-soldier-disobey-an-order/ https://warontherocks.com/2017/07/when-can-a-soldier-disobey...