Others have done a good job addressing some of the points you have brought up, but I want to make sure a few things are completely clear.
No. I remember that case very well. He banned a character on my character's order.
"I was just following orders" is never a valid defense for breaking the game's rules. All it means is that you are both culpable.
And not for inactivitiy but for spying. No player was ever punished or even scolded for inactivity.
That is actually beyond the point. Even if I was mistaken (I wasn't), my point was that the ban had nothing to do with player's activity.
I want to be absolutely crystal clear about a few things here:
1. You were wrong. Absolutely, 100%, completely wrong. The character that was banned was not a spy.
2. You banned a new player after only five days in the realm for something that is not, and has not been for many years, considered a valid reason for banning.
3. Even if the player had, in fact, been a spy, you would still have been in the wrong, punishment would have been fully deserved, and I would still be very angry at you for not giving them the benefit of the doubt. You had no evidence of their treachery, only a vague suspicion based on the fact that they had once had a character in a realm you were at war with, so you did something that has a very, very high chance of driving any new player away from this game forever.
4. The fact that you still think of it in terms of a "win" for "team north" shows me that you are prioritizing in-character rivalries over out-of-character concerns like the fun of other real live human beings and the health of the game. This is deeply concerning to me, for reasons that ought to be fairly obvious.
5. Giving a reason of "not following orders" for a ban of a player who, during the time since receiving the orders, has neither acted nor sent any letters, is, in fact, an Inalienable Rights violation, provided that span of time is not long enough for the character to auto-pause.