Should the Lockerbie bomber be released?

[Rum]

...All we do know is that one of the men involved has served 10 years and is about to die...

We don't know he was involved.

Well either we trust the legal system or we don't...

No sane person entirely trusts the legal system (still less the Scottish legal system).

I agree with you. All systems are fallible. The point is that at any given point someone is either officially guilty or not. At this point it looks like there are grounds for an appeal. But he is also at this point convicted.

[Trolldor]

And dead.

[maiforpeace]

Was releasing him a good decision? Discuss.

Scotland Lets Lockerbie Convict Return to Libya
By JOHN F. BURNS and ALAN COWELL
Published: August 20, 2009

LONDON — Despite strenuous American opposition, the Scottish government on Thursday ordered the release on compassionate grounds of the only person convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, permitting Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a 57-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent, to return home after serving 8 years of a 27-year minimum sentence on charges of murdering 270 people in Britain’s worst terrorist episode.

He qualified for compassionate release after medical evidence showed he would die within months of prostate cancer, the Scottish authorities said.

Within hours of the announcement television broadcasts showed Mr. Megrahi clambering from a white prison van and walking, hunched but unassisted, up the steps of an airplane from Libya’s Afriqiyah airline at Glasgow airport. He was wearing a white tracksuit and baseball cap and carried a cane.

The airplane lifted off less than two and a half hours after Scotland’s Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill opened a news conference to announce Mr. Megrahi’s release.

His freedom came almost 21 years after a bomb smuggled onto Pan Am Flight 103 exploded at 31,000 feet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

Of the dead, 189 were Americans. The Scottish decision was certain to provoke anguished protest from American families of the victims who had demanded that he serve his full sentence.

The White House said in a news release that it “deeply regrets” the Scottish decision. “We continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland,” the statement said.

Mr. MacAskill said it was his decision and his alone that Mr. Megrahi “be released on compassionate grounds and allowed to return to Libya to die.”

“I have followed due process,” he said.

Mr. MacAskill acknowledged that Mr. Megrahi “did not show his victims any comfort or compassion” and that they were not allowed to go home to their families. “No compassion was shown by him to them,” he said. “But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him.”

He called the Lockerbie bombing a “heinous crime” in which the victims were “cruelly murdered.”

Mr. MacAskill said he had been asked to rule on two applications for Mr. Megrahi’s release — one relating to an agreement between Libya and Britain on the transfer of prisoners and one on compassionate grounds. He said he rejected an application by the Libyan government for a prisoner transfer after United States officials insisted that, when Mr. Megrahi was tried, they had been assured that he would serve his full term in Scotland.

He also criticized the British government for saying it had given no such assurance to the United States. “I find that highly regrettable,” he said.

He said Scottish law provided for release on compassionate grounds of prisoners with terminal illnesses whose life expectancy was less than three months.

After receiving medical reports from prison doctors and others, he said, it was clear that “he has a terminal illness, and recently there has been a significant deterioration in his health.”

“The three-month prognosis is a reasonable estimate,” Mr. MacAskill said. “He may die sooner. He may live longer.”

While he acknowledged that “the pain and suffering will remain forever” for the families of the victims, “our belief dictates that justice be served and mercy be shown.”

Mr. MacAskill said Mr. Megrahi could be leaving within an hour from Scotland’s Greenock prison, and transferred to Glasgow airport to be flown home. Television footage showed an Airbus with the marking “Afriqiyah” landing at Glasgow airport while a convoy of police cars and motorcycle outriders escorted an armored prison van carrying Mr. Megrahi.

“I am conscious there are deeply held feelings and that many will disagree whatever my decision,” Mr. MacAskill said. “However, a decision has to be made.”

“Scotland will forever remember the crime that has been perpetrated against our people and those from many other lands,” he said. “Some hurt can never heal, some scars can never fade. Those who have been bereaved cannot be expected to forget, let alone forgive. Their pain runs deep and the wounds remain,” he said.

News reports said that plans had been made for Mr. Megrahi to fly on a jet sent by the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, as soon as his release had been formally announced.

Scottish authorities were braced for a hostile reaction from the Obama administration, which has vigorously opposed Mr. Megrahi’s release. On Wednesday Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said it would be “absolutely wrong” to release Mr. Megrahi.

A Scottish official who discussed the case said that Mr. MacAskill’s decision was bound to provoke anger either way. “Whatever decision you make, it’s going to upset some people,” he said, speaking anonymously on the grounds that he was not authorized to comment officially. He added, “There are a lot of representatives of U.K. families who lost relatives in the bombing who feel quite strongly that Megrahi should be released.”

In 2001 a special Scottish court that heard the case in the Netherlands found Mr. Megrahi guilty of murder and other offenses related to the bombing but acquitted another Libyan tried with him. Mr. Megrahi has never admitted his guilt, and he was engaged in a second appeal this year when doctors in Scotland diagnosed a terminal case of prostate cancer.

With his health weighing as a potentially decisive factor in the case, the Libyan government arranged for one of Britain’s top cancer specialists, Dr. Karol Sikora, to examine him in late July, together with a Libyan cancer specialist. On Wednesday, Dr. Sikora called for an urgent decision in the case, saying that Mr. Megrahi “has only a very short period of time to live.”

The decision Thursday followed days of legal and political maneuvering. Earlier this week, Mr. Megrahi’s lawyers petitioned successfully in a Scottish court to abandon his appeal of his 2001 conviction, which was due to resume in September. The appeal has hinged on the claim of Mr. Megrahi’s lawyers that he was wrongly identified at trial as the man who bought clothes in a shop in Malta that were used to wrap the bomb on board Pan Am 103.

A BBC report from Tripoli said authorities there were preparing a warm homecoming for Mr. Megrahi, who belongs to a powerful tribe that has been a political ally of Colonel Qaddafi.

But many American families that lost relatives in the bombing remained adamant in their opposition to the Libyan’s release.

“If this was bin Laden or one of bin Laden’s deputies sitting in jail, would we even be having this discussion? I don’t think so,” said Stephanie Bernstein, whose husband, Michael, was killed.

“I think this has to do with oil. I think this has to do with politics. And I don’t think this has anything to do with justice,” she said Wednesday.

Helen Engelhardt, whose husband, Tony Hawkins, was killed on the plane, said she wanted to hear more from Mr. Megrahi.

“I would like this fellow, before he breathes his last breath to tell us the story,” Ms. Engelhardt said Wednesday. “We need the truth. We need to know what really happened.”

[Xamonas Chegwé]

He'll be dead in a few weeks or months (unless Libya has made incredible oncological advances that they have kept from the rest of the world!)

Forcing him to die in prison serves no purpose other than bitter revenge. I think they were right to let him go.

[AshtonBlack]

He'll be dead in a few weeks or months (unless Libya has made incredible oncological advances that they have kept from the rest of the world!)

Forcing him to die in prison serves no purpose other than bitter revenge. I think they were right to let him go.

I watched the speech live on the Beeb. Mr. MacAskill made the right decision, he researched the compassionate case with integrity. Nice.

[Rum]

We have another thread on this as it happens. I thought it was the right decision having listened to the Scottish Justice Minister on the radio on the way home from work. He was in a no win and could not as he put it 'square the circle' between families' of the victims and compassion. A good call that puts them on the moral high ground in my view.

I see Obama is calling it a mistake. One of the few things I have so far disagreed with him on..and I ashall tell him when I am next at tea with him!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I have merged this thread with the earlier one.

[Trolldor]

What an ignorant bitch.
"It has to do with oil."

[charlou]

Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill:



The decision to treat this man with compassion reflects humanitarian dignity back on the Scottish government. Good stuff.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It is nice to see a British politician overriding the wishes of the Americans occasionally. Take note Mr Brown!

[maiforpeace]

It is nice to see a British politician overriding the wishes of the Americans occasionally. Take note Mr Brown!

Mr. Brown been rather mum on the whole thing since Megrahi's release. He is most definitely taking note.

Lockerbie bomber's release linked to trade deal, claims Gaddafi's son

By James Kirkup and Aislinn Simpson
Published: 11:29PM BST 21 Aug 2009

Saif al Islam Gaddafi said that Megrahi’s return was a “victory” for all Libyans.

He made the claims in a television interview for Libyan television recorded as he accompanied Megrahi on the flight back from Scotland to Libya on Thursday.

The claims were vehemently denied by the UK government.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “There is no deal. All decisions relating to Megrahi’s case have been exclusively for Scottish ministers, the Crown Office in Scotland and the Scottish judicial authorities.

“No deal has been made between the UK government and Libya in relation to Megrahi and any commercial interests in the country.”

The claims came as Megrahi said he would produce evidence proving his innocence before he dies.

In an interview with The Times, Megrahi said: My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out the evidence and ask them to be the jury.” He refused to elaborate, or speculate about who was responisble for the deaths.

The comments came after President Obama condemned the welcome Megrahi received in Libya as 'highly objectionable'.

Mr Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, earlier denounced the scenes in the Libyan capital Tripoli when returned home as "outrageous and disgusting".

Speaking before he left the White House to spend the weekend at Camp David, Mr Obama led US condemnation of the bomber's return.

"It was highly objectionable," he said in reference to the release and arrival at Tripoli's airport of Megrahi, where he was greeted by hundreds of people on Thursday night.

Mr Gibbs said: "The images that we saw in Libya yesterday were outrageous and disgusting.

"We communicated with the Libyan goverment, we continue to watch what they do in the days going forward about this individual, and understand that the video that you saw yesterday was tremendously offensive to the survivors that lost a loved one in 1988."

Relatives of the Americans killed in the 1998 atrocity, when a Pan Am jet was blown up over Lockerbie in Scotland, said they planned to converge on New York to mount a protest at the presence of the Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi when he attends the United Nations Genral Assembly on Sept 23.

The families discussed their protest in a conference call on Friday.

Susan Cohen, whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, died in the attack, called Megrahi's release "a triumph for terrorism".

"Look what we've come to be - a man [Megrahi] blows up an American plane and now here he [Gaddafi] is rolling into New York in triumph. That's wonderful. Makes the world safer, doesn't it?" she said.

There is also growing anger in Britain at the reception granted to Megrahi on his return to Libya after eight years in a Scottish jail.

Downing Street has also said that Gordon Brown had appealed to the Libyans not to give Megrahi a hero's welcome on his return.

Megrahi, the biggest mass murderer in British legal history, flew home to Tripoli on Thursday after being freed from jail on compassionate grounds by Scotland's devolved adminstration.

A large crowd gathered to greet his return, and he has been feted as a national hero.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that the reception Libya gave Megrahi was "deeply distressing".

The Foreign Office is now understood to be reviewing a plan for Prince Andrew to represent Britian at celebrations marking 40 years of Col Gaddafi's rule.

The prince, a British trade envoy, has made several previous trips to Libya, where several large British energy firms hold oil and gas contracts.

A Foreign Office source said that the level of Britain's representation at the event is now being reconsidered.

The Scottish decision has triggered a backlash. The Foreign Secretary's comments came amid furious reactions to the decision by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to free on compassionate grounds the biggest mass murderer in British legal history.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Miliband condemned the scenes of celebration and flag-waving in Libya as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the 1988 atrocity, flew home to Tripoli.

"Obviously the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing," he said.

"Above all for the 270 families who grieve every day for the loss of their loved ones 21 years ago and also for anyone who has an ounce of humanity in them. I think that that is the overriding emotion that people will be feeling today."

Megrahi, 57, a former intelligence agent who has terminal prostate cancer, was greeted in Tripoli by a crowd of thousands along with relatives and the Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al Islam Gaddafi.

After he left Scottish soil, Megrahi, who has served eight years of a 27-year sentence, released a statement protesting his innocence and expressing his "sympathy" for the families of the 270 people he was convicted of killing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... s-son.html

[Trolldor]

The thing is, are these people celebrating him for being a mass murderer or for him being released from false imprisonment? That particular detail isn't made clear in the news report.

[Rum]

Well the FBI don't agree with Scotland's' definition of 'compassion' that's for sure. At the BBC :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8216122.stm

- Quoting-

FBI director Robert Mueller has launched a scathing attack on Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

In a letter, dated 21 August, Mr Mueller said the decision makes "a mockery of justice" and gives comfort to terrorists around the world.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi has received a hero's welcome in Libya.

The Scottish Government said it had consulted widely in the US and UK and had made the right decision.

Mr Mueller was previously a Justice Department lawyer leading the investigation into the 1988 bombing.

The director's letter is also being sent to families of the Lockerbie victims.

Mr Mueller wrote: "Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law.

"Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of 'compassion'."

Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill (2o August 2009)
Mr MacAskill said there was no reason to deny Megrahi compassion

Mr Mueller said that he had made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors, but that the release of terminally ill Megrahi had prompted a change of heart.

He added: "Your action makes a mockery of the emotions, passions and pathos of all those affected by the Lockerbie tragedy: the medical personnel who first faced the horror of 270 bodies strewn in the fields around Lockerbie, and in the town of Lockerbie itself; the hundreds of volunteers who walked the fields of Lockerbie to retrieve any piece of debris related to the break-up of the plane; the hundreds of FBI agents and Scottish police who undertook an unprecedented global investigation to identify those responsible; the prosecutors who worked for years - in some cases a full career - to see justice done."

The FBI director said he was outraged by the move, and criticised the MSP for failing to consult "partners in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy".


Compassionate release is not part of the US justice system but it is part of Scotland's

He wrote: "You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand. You have given Megrahi a 'jubilant welcome' in Tripoli, according to the reporting. Where, I ask, is the justice?"

A Scottish Government spokesman said the minister had made the right decision for the "right reasons" on the basis of due process, clear evidence, and recommendations from the parole board and prison governor.

He said: "Compassionate release is not part of the US justice system but it is part of Scotland's.

"Mr MacAskill could not have consulted more widely - he spoke with the US families, the US Attorney General, Secretary of State Clinton and many others.

"The US authorities indicated that although they were opposed to both prisoner transfer and compassionate release, they made it clear that they regarded compassionate release as far preferable to the transfer agreement, and Mr Mueller should be aware of that."

The spokesman said that Mr Mueller should also be aware that while many families have opposed Mr MacAskill's decision many others have supported it.

He added that the justice secretary would reply to Mr Mueller in due course.

[charlou]

The thing is, are these people celebrating him for being a mass murderer or for him being released from false imprisonment?

Even if it is the former of those two reasons, I don't think that alters or undermines the validity of the rationale behind the Scottish Government's decision, ie humanitarian compassion. In fact, I think such demonstrations of idiotic and dangerous human behaviour (ie terrorism/celebrating terrorism, human rights abuse, etc) only serve to highlight the importance of setting the example of humanitarian compassion.

[Twoflower]

Of course the US doesn't agree with the release. We dont have compassion.