A United States prosecutor has the opportunity to set a necessary precident and press criminal charges against a former American nurse for assisted suicide in the death of Carleton student Nadia Kajouji.

Minnesota police have identified William Melchert-Dinkel as the man behind the online persona, Cami D — a young, female nurse who encouraged Kajouji to hang herself in front of a webcam shortly before the 18-year-old student’s body was found in the Rideau River in April 2008.

Assisting or counselling suicide has long been outlawed in both Canada and the United States. Under Minnesota’s criminal code, Melchert-Dinkel could face up to 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $30,000, or both. But this would mean breaking new legal ground since most cases involving the statute so far have involved someone who has provided a suicidal person with something physical, such as a weapon or vehicle.

In this increasingly digital world, it is time these laws addressed online predators. In November, Canadian MPs unanimously passed a motion, which had been drafted in response to Kajouji’s death, calling upon the government to ensure that counselling, aiding or abetting a person to commit suicide is treated as a crime, regardless of the medium used.

Pressing charges against Melchert-Dinkel will send a strong message to cowardly predators who think the Internet provides a faceless sanctuary for committing crimes. It’s all too easy to abuse the trust of someone suffering from mental illness online. Such conduct is not tolerated in hospitals or clinics, so why should it pass in cyberspace?

Encouraging vulnerable members of society to take their lives is simply not acceptable. Using the web to do so is the same as pushing them off a bridge, or kicking the stool out from under their feet — sickening and illegal.