Lockerbie
Compassion -v- Justice
Right -v- Wrong
Scottish justice system -v- the rest of the world
Right -v- Wrong
Scottish justice system -v- the rest of the world
Whatever decision Kenny MacAskill finally makes, he is going to be wrong. And he has no-one to blame beyond the Scottish Government who have been instrumental in raising the profile of the prisoner swap over the past few years, and creating the atmosphere that we find today.
The hare has started running, and it can't be stopped.
I must admit to having an underlying bias when I think about Lockerbie, as I used to drive through and past the town regularly when I worked on the mainland, and because I know that if the plane had stayed in the air for another 30 minutes, it would have come down in Stornoway.
We are not going to get the truth from yet another investigation; as what we have got to date is only part of the truth. But will that matter?
It is clear that the whole affair is political - for which read being driven by big oil companies - but the handling of the matter by Kenny MacAskill is utterly inept.
A murderer is a murderer is a murderer. You don't go and visit one and not the rest when you are considering their case; possibly compromising your position.
The US bitterly oppose the prisoner transfer; Mandelson has an 'unexpected' meeting with Gadaffi's son whilst on holiday in Corfu; the promises to look at the case were made long ago and cannot be unmade.
For once the SNP are utterly wrong-footed and utterly exposed on this issue with them having sole responsibility for whatever happens.
But is there a right way forward?
Not from where we are today. This matter should have been dealt with in a low profile way until such time as a decision as very close to being made, and then that decision should have been explained and debated in Parliament.
With a decision supposedly being made within 2 weeks, with the Parliament in recess, you have all the makings of a decision being implemented and present to Parliament on its return. That course of action will cause a spectacular row, and quite right too, and do serious damage to the reputation of Ministers, the Scottish Government and the reputation of the Scottish justice system.
And that - sadly - is where we are going.
13 comments:
What a pile o pish.
I don't get it.
A deal usually means the both parties get something that they want, what has the Scottish Government got from Megraghi?
Surely it would have been in the Scottish Government's interests to have his appeal continue and throw light on his conviction and the myriad of alternative and very plausible throies of who was behind the bombing.
Since when is killing 270 people the same as anyone else held in the Scottish Prison population?
How many convicted killers are dying from prostrate cancer with reputedly less than 90 days to live?
Labour's politicising of this issue, an issue that has Blair, Brown and Mandalson's fingerprints ALL over it is truly shameful.
Scoring political points from the death of 270.
Despicable but to be expected from the hypocrits at John Smith House.
Remember the denoiunceiations of Salmond when he raised this whole issue over a year and half ago to parliament, how Labour denied that a prisoner tranfer scheme had been put in place with Blairs meeting of Gadafi in the desert.
Hypocrits.
The SNP attack-numpties are out to drown out anyone they disagree with, rather than argue the case.
Justify this:
In April 2008, First Minister Alex Salmond said in an SNP press release that "anybody connected and convicted of the Lockerbie bombing should serve their sentences under Scottish jurisdiction."
1052
since your probably a new labour attack numpty (new labour standing for nothing other than being anti-SNP and pro bloodshed-in-illegal-wars) you should realise that bLIAR, Brown and Mandy have alot to answer for on this issue....
Deal in the desert....
Oh bullocks. Is there no blog left that I can read that Wardog doesnt appear with his uber cyber nat bull?
10:52
The chappie concerned is serving his sentence under Scottish Jurisdiction. Therefore under that he can be released to go home and die. Simples.
People really should fully read what slime ball poilitcos say and not read what they want to read.
The Scottish Government should be absolutely disgusted with themselves for allowing a mass murderer of innocent people free. I just hope that the deal that they have struck was worth the innocent lives that they have betrayed.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8212269.stm
It looks as if the Scottish lawlords were having a very compassionate day. The message being, kill a person, kill 270 people and get away with murder. "Scotland the land of the free murderer and the home of the easy sentence."
Guys & Gals,
The guy was convicted and has been released on compassionate gronds to go home & die awith his family (Yes that is a luxury not afforded to the people killed). However, surely our ability to show compassion is what differetiates us from those countries who still have capital punishment. It shows that we have a civilised society unlike for example, the rebel colonies across the pond. Lets be honest, they are about as civilised as a wart hog. TBH I'm surprised that there wasn't an accident and they shot down his plane (which they have done before).
Justice & Compassion not vengence.
So 11:38am does that mean that every terminally ill person in a Scottish jail is going to get released on compassionate grounds? Or do you have to ensure that you have a deal to be done to be awarded compassion.
I can't remember what the original was but it was along the lines of...
'you can judge a society in the way they treat their prisoners, the elderly, and the vulnerable'
We may not have it anywhere near perfect in Scotland but when I see what goes on in these classes of society across the pond I feel that they have a right cheek to interfere.
To cloak business interests in a veil of compassion is such gross hypocisy only politicians would stoop low enough to use it as an excuse and not blush with shame.
The Daily Mash sums this up best;
YORKSHIRE RIPPER TO DIG FOR OIL
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has begun digging for oil beneath his Broadmoor cell in the hope of bribing the authorities into letting him go.
In the event of a successful strike Sutcliffe hopes to negotiate his early release in return for full exploration rights and a series of generous tax concessions.
A Broadmoor source said: "As a back-up he's applied to join the Libyan secret service. He's written a lovely letter to Colonel Gadaffi and has hired an Arabic translator to help him fill in all the forms."
The move came as the Scottish government released terminally- ill Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi in time for Ramadan, the Islamic festival of onshore drilling.
Insisting the release was on compassionate grounds, Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, said: "Jail is a terrible thing. I remember sitting in a police cell shortly after I was banged up for being completely arseholed at Wembley in 1999 and thinking, 'no one shoud have to put up with this, no matter how drunk they are, or how many planes they've blown up'."
He added: "And anyway prostate cancer is, quite frankly, a bugger. When you're facing mortality the last thing you need is to be bothered by a lot of insensitive prison officers and their noisy, jangling keys."
Meanwhile Scottish government sources stressed the Libyan's appeal was unlikely to have been heard before he died, mainly because it takes so long to say his full name.
But al-Megrahi's release has angered the British public with many claiming that when it comes to reasons for denying someone compassion, mass murder is about as good as it gets.
Tom Logan, an accountant from Finsbury Park, said: "If someone who had killed 270 people told me they had cancer, my natural reaction would be to say 'that must be just awful for you, I hope it's really sore'.
"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't come up with some bullshit excuse and then organise a private jet to fly them home."
Margaret Gerving, a retired headmistress from Guildford, added: "Harold Shipman would never have been released on compassionate grounds and he was a doctor so he would have been really good at faking it."
I understand from listening to Mr Megraghi's Scottish lawyer being interviewed on BBC Radio 4, that there are strong grounds for an appeal against his conviction. Megraghi dropped the appeal as his main wish was to die at home, and no pending legal action in Scotland was a condition of his return to Libya.
I am very ready to be convinced that Megraghi is in fact innocent. I would not be unbearably surprised to learn that the CIA blew up the plane over Lockerbie.
However, this will never come to light. I congratulate Kenny MacAskill on his decency and courage.
Anyone who takes time to read the facts of the case, instead of jumping up and down for vengeance, will see that there are very serious grounds for thinking Megrahi has been the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice. This 2007 account gives the salient facts: LRB
Interesting too though that apparently Scottish law did not require him to give up his appeal in order to be released on compassionate grounds, and that was instead a Whitehall instruction to Libya.
It's hard to see through the thicket of subterfuge surrounding this situation as nearly everyone benefits from this outcome: Megrahi goes home, deals can be done, SNP gets to (pretend to) be independent, UK & US get to (probably) put to bed the danger of the appeal revealing what really happened (at the trial I mean - I don't really buy the notion of the CIA being involved) while blaming numpty Scotland... the only ones not benefiting are the families of the victims, who are distressed and who are now less likely to ever know the truth.
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