Brian Wilson: The Lockerbie Bomber and Scotland's Disgrace
[Mr. Wilson is a former minister in the U.K.'s Labour government.]
Today in Tripoli, one year after his release from a Scottish jail, Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi is a free man. This is a scandal that cruelly taunts the bereaved of Lockerbie and outrages decent opinion within the United States, where most of his 270 victims came from.
It should be absolutely clear that the same horror at what has been done is widespread within Scotland itself. Indeed, we have an additional reason for objecting to Megrahi's release, for it is an outcome that makes an international mockery of our ancient and distinctive legal system.
That system went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that Megrahi was given a fair trial. In finding him guilty of the biggest mass murder in our legal history, it concluded that he should serve at least 27 years in prison. There was an established route open to Megrahi if he wished to continue to contest these outcomes.
All of that was set aside by a mere politician, the justice minister in the minority Scottish Nationalist administration in Edinburgh, Kenny MacAskill. A year ago today, he insisted that Megrahi was "going home to die." As if we lived in some kind of tinpot theocracy, Mr. MacAskill intoned that Megrahi would be judged by "a higher authority."
Much as I deplore Mr. MacAskill's motivations, I believe they were pretty much as he stated at the time. This was, above all, a political stunt. A Nationalist administration wanted to establish a distinctive Scottish identity in international affairs. Mr. MacAskill was going to show the world that decisions taken in Scotland were based on uniquely elevated characteristics of "compassion" and "humanity."..
Read entire article at WSJ
Today in Tripoli, one year after his release from a Scottish jail, Abdelbaset Ali Megrahi is a free man. This is a scandal that cruelly taunts the bereaved of Lockerbie and outrages decent opinion within the United States, where most of his 270 victims came from.
It should be absolutely clear that the same horror at what has been done is widespread within Scotland itself. Indeed, we have an additional reason for objecting to Megrahi's release, for it is an outcome that makes an international mockery of our ancient and distinctive legal system.
That system went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that Megrahi was given a fair trial. In finding him guilty of the biggest mass murder in our legal history, it concluded that he should serve at least 27 years in prison. There was an established route open to Megrahi if he wished to continue to contest these outcomes.
All of that was set aside by a mere politician, the justice minister in the minority Scottish Nationalist administration in Edinburgh, Kenny MacAskill. A year ago today, he insisted that Megrahi was "going home to die." As if we lived in some kind of tinpot theocracy, Mr. MacAskill intoned that Megrahi would be judged by "a higher authority."
Much as I deplore Mr. MacAskill's motivations, I believe they were pretty much as he stated at the time. This was, above all, a political stunt. A Nationalist administration wanted to establish a distinctive Scottish identity in international affairs. Mr. MacAskill was going to show the world that decisions taken in Scotland were based on uniquely elevated characteristics of "compassion" and "humanity."..