Perpetual exile

Perpetual exile was a form of ritualistic public degradation, corporal punishment, and banishment practiced extensively by Republican forces during the Iustitian Civil War.

History of the practice

High ranking members of the provisional government who were captured during the war were often subjected to show trials, where they would be charged with betraying, among other things, the trust of the people of Iustitia and their oath of office. When found guilty (and there were few exonerations), defendants would be sentenced to "perpetual exile." In carrying out this punishment, they would be dragged from the Gerjochtsgebou (now the Old Republic Courthouse in Iustitia City, where most show trials occured) to Iustitia harbor, where they would be beaten mercilessly and loaded onto the first ship leaving the nation. Perpetually exiled persons were stripped of citizenship and banished from ever setting foot in the Republic again, as were all of there descendants, at least, in theory. Property belonging to those charged with perpetual exile was generally sized by the nascent republican government. After Provisional forces were all but routed towards the end of the war, the practice was discontinued. In total, around one hundred and fifty individuals were perpetually exiled, including the former leader of the Iustitian Republic, Solomon Clarke, who was tried in absentia, but was killed before his sentence could be carried out.

Historians have generally regarded perpetual exile as a form of institutionalized mob violence, since the punishment was generally carried out spontaneously and without the oversight of deputized authorities. Judges presiding over the show trials were often self-appointed and the accused were rarely granted the right to counsel. The modern Maximusian Republic has gone to great lengths to distance itself from those who carried out perpetual exiles, formally pardoning all those who were exiled by the late 19th century (by which point virtually all exiled individuals were dead). Perpetual exile has never been a codified punishment in Libertas Omnium Maximus, though many Valahandian loyalists during the Iustitian War for Independence were exiled in the traditional, less violent manner, for treason.