The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, is waiting on the verdict of Kenny MacAskill to see whether he will be allowed to return home to Libya in the near future.Al-Megrahi has prostate cancer, an illness that may well see him die before his appeal can be heard in court. This possibility is strengthened as a result of the judge on the case, Lord Wheatley, undergoing heart surgery and needing months to recover.
We've heard of the blind the leading the blind, well the sick judging the sick is just as regrettable.
Scotland needs to show the world that it's not the type of country that will lock someone up just for the sake of it. Justice delayed is indeed justice denied and for as long as there are question marks over the Al-Megrahi trial and for as long as it takes for Lord Wheatley to recover from illness, the Libyan prisoner should be free to spend some of his last precious weeks and months with his family.
I hope the discussions that Kenny MacAskill had with Libyan officials today result in the Justice Secretary making a decision on compassionate and common sense grounds that al-Megrahi's little time remaining is better served with his family than in Greenock prison.
7 comments:
My instinct is to agree. I actually think that there does need to be flexibility with any prisoner who is in the last stages of a terminal illness to spend their last days with their family -and actually some time with them when they still actually have some quality of life left.
I can understand that the families of those who lost their lives might feel aggrieved by his release. On balance, though we firstly don't really know whether it was Al-Megrahi who did it or whether he was the unfortunate fall guy for someone else and secondly I don't see how it would make things better to keep a very sick man in prison thousands of miles from his family for his last days.
My understanding was that most relatives of victims in the UK believe Megrahi to be innocent.
Caron, close Megrahi's family are housed very comfortably in Glasgow and visit him very regularly. As yet I've never found out who pays for the accommodation.
As for prostate cancer, I know a little about that. In court a few months ago his lawyers were saying he only had weeks to live. That was around 4 months ago. Too many lies have been told about his illness and that hasn't be of any assistance to those men who are currently suffering from it.
Mr Megrahi will have had the same, if not better, medical treatment as others.
The whole affair stinks, from beginning to end. Theories saying he was the stool pigeon seem near the mark (along with the one who was found not guilty) and the trial seemed to do Scotland no credit at all.
Now we have a judge who is ill and the whole appeal grinds to a halt. What kind of justice system do we have? Surely there is someone who can replace the indisposed judge. As a country we have paid millions in legal fees.
Jeff, you suggest we show the world we are compassionate, yet most, if not all, of the relatives do not want this release.
We are between a rock and a hard place.
Lallands did a post on this the other day and I fall on his side of the fence.
subrosa: most, if not all, of the relatives do not want this release.
Well, it's certainly not all.
If after a trial and a completed appeal with another one in the process of being heard, we presume that he is guilty and I accept he possibly might not be then I believe that his crime was so heinous then if he dies in prision, so be it.
Al-Megrahi's continued imprisonmnet for a crime he clearly did not commit is a grave embarrassment to the Scottish legal establishment.
However, admitting that it was coerced by the British Foreign Office into convicting him in the first place will be even more embarrassing for that same establishment so i suspewct that Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi will be left to rot in jail.
A disgrace.
Other things aside, why on earth can the illness of one judge mean that a man's appeal cannot be heard. It makes me wonder why it has to be THIS judge and no other who hears this case.....
If the judge dies (heaven forbid) on the operating table, what will happen?
I understand, Subrosa, that prostate cancer is something you can live with for a very long time, in some cases. (I think Tony Benn has it, and has done for around 20 years or so.) However, in other cases, a more aggressive stain of the cancer can kill in a short time. Cancer is difficult to predict and tends to go its own way.
Surely,however, he is guilty. Surely Scotland, and its legal system was not complicit in following an agreed Anglo American agenda for whatever reason. It it was we should be deeply ashamed
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