LONDON – Angelina Jolie made headlines in the British capital after calling for the people who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria to be severely punished.
Jolie, in London with Brad Pitt for the red carpet premiere of the Disney-backed reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale Maleficent, made headlines with her call from the event at Kensington Palace in London on Thursday.
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The 38-year-old actress, who serves as a United Nations special envoy for refugees, described reporters’ questions and people’s concern for the abducted girls at a movie event as “heartwarming.”
“The important thing, though, is to understand that this happens because these men think they can get away with it and they can do this,” Jolie told reporters.
“We have to start arresting people for this, we have to start bringing them to justice and we have to start making it an absolute crime that puts fear in these men so that they think twice about this kind of action.”
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The comments were picked up by Reuters, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, among others.
She said hard-line punishment should be enforced to stop “men thinking that they can get away with it.”
More than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls have been kidnapped by Islamist rebel group Boko Haram.
