Back in 2009 (see here, here and here), as the authorities prepared to release the so-called Lockerbie Bomber to return to Libya, ostensibly on compassionate grounds, I came across a blog by Scottish law professor Robert Black. The latter, together with Jim Swire (father of one of the victims) smelt a rat.
Some suspect that not only was the wrong man accused - the wrong country, even (the operation may have been Iranian) - but that there was a deliberate miscarriage of justice and a cover-up, and that Al-Megrahi was sent home to prevent a retrial that would blow the whole affair wide open.
Now (hat-tip: Ian Parker-Joseph) Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald has published a 5-year-old, hitherto secret legal review of the case, which they say contains evidence that could well have led to Al-Megrahi's conviction being overturned. The link to the (slightly redacted) 800-page text is here.
This is a bad day for the reputation of the Scottish legal system, especially when (as Parker-Joseph does) one is tempted to rope in outstanding concerns about the 1996 Dunblane massacre and alleged child abuse victim Hollie Greig.
Time for a full public enquiry - no "safe pair of hands", please, no cripplingly narrow terms of reference, full power of subpoena, all evidence on oath and no prior indemnification against prosecution for perjury or other perversion of the course of justice. And later, possibly, a huge action for damages by Al-Megrahi and his family.
And then let's see what else needs to be cleared from the Augean stables.
4 comments:
"The leader of the Opposition told the House of Commons: "We need a proper independent inquiry appropriate to the gravity of what it is [sic] at stake."
Only Ed Miliband was referring to who had dinner with the Camerons in the last few months.
Not this.
I read that Gaddafi was opposing the new banking system.
In undergraduate days I knew Robert Black quite well. Clever cookie and intellectually serious. So when I learnt a few years ago that he thought the conviction unsafe, I knew that it was pretty likely to be unsafe.
Nice article, thanks for sharing.
Post a Comment