Lockerbie Bomber released

[Tribesman]

I simply can't understand why this man was released.

Its quite obvious , key witnesses have already testified on oath that they were paid to lie in the original trial.
The attempts by the government to limit the scope of the legal appeal and to suppress evidence had failed .
Britain(and America) would be made to look very very bad if this case went back to court...so a compasionate release saves face for them and by getting the scots to do it they can claim it wasn't them who backed down.

[Duke of Gloucester]

Its quite obvious , key witnesses have already testified on oath that they were paid to lie in the original trial.
The attempts by the government to limit the scope of the legal appeal and to suppress evidence had failed .
Britain(and America) would be made to look very very bad if this case went back to court...so a compasionate release saves face for them and by getting the scots to do it they can claim it wasn't them who backed down.

A possible explanation but there are three objections:

1. We British tend to back the courts' original decisions, especially in terrorism cases, well beyond the point where it is obvious there has been a miscarriage of justice without giving any thought to how "bad" we look. For example look at the Birmingham six if you want to see how we normally deal with such things.
2. If he only has three months to live it should be possible to draw things out long enough to make sure no court makes a decision.
3. Scottish authorities (especially the SNP) are not going to worry about making the Westminster government look bad - quite the reverse.

Whether the original conviction is safe or not will come out in the end. I don't think avoiding another appeal is will help in the end.

[Idaho]

It's an odd case for sure. When we start getting into the murky world of international 'intelligence' and security - who knows what is right or wrong. It's no suprise that conspiraloons are so prevalent when anything important that happens has their scheming and counter-scheming all over it.

Should he be released? God knows. Was the trial dodgy? Yes. Was he responsible? God knows.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I'm rather incensed at this. If he's guilty, he's spent about a year for every 34 victims.

Any links to info on the 'dodginess' of the trial?

CR

[Idaho]

I'm rather incensed at this. If he's guilty, he's spent about a year for every 34 victims.

Any links to info on the 'dodginess' of the trial?

CR

A Convienient Scapegoat?

[Crazed Rabbit]

A Convienient Scapegoat?

Thanks. I suppose I agree with Idaho's assessment (never thought I'd be saying that!).

CR

[Hooahguy]

coincidence that this happened the night after i saw a documentary about the Lockerbie disaster?

[Hosakawa Tito]

A Convienient Scapegoat?

Thanks, never got to read an article as comprehensive as this one. So what did Khadafi do for Megrahi's family to have him fall on his sword for this? It's odd that any of those involved in this would want it dredged up now.

[Idaho]

Thanks, never got to read an article as comprehensive as this one. So what did Khadafi do for Megrahi's family to have him fall on his sword for this? It's odd that any of those involved in this would want it dredged up now.

It's all so shady. We'll never know. Somewhere in various CIA/MI6/Mossad/Lybian/Iranian/Palestinian/Lizard Folk offices someone is no doubt busy with the shredder.

[Fragony]

Britain(and America) would be made to look very very bad if this case went back to court...so a compasionate release saves face for them and by getting the scots to do it they can claim it wasn't them who backed down.

That's a big if, why would this case go back to court, any new information?

[rory_20_uk]

On completely unrelated news, Libya has masses of oil and it is a source that doesn't rely on Russia or the Middle East...

In terms of reliability, I think Idaho has it nailed.

[rvg]

Its quite obvious , key witnesses have already testified on oath that they were paid to lie in the original trial.

Or they're actually lying now as opposed to back then.

[Rhyfelwyr]

The subject of this thread is probably the first political thing I've heard everyone in RL give an opinion on of late, normally they don't take an interest in politics. The attitude from what I see is pretty mixed, although few people feel to strongly about it over here, since he's going to die anyway.

Technically, I suppose if he was convicted of such a crime then he shoudln't be released. However, from what I've seen on the news (yes not exactly conclusive, but I wasn't even born when Lockerbie happened), the evidence against Megrahi was pretty dubious and apparently one guy was paid millions to give evidence against him and now lives in a mansion in Australia.

And so with that taken into consideration, I'm not too bothered about him being released, in fact I'm glad that he will get to go back to his homeland before he dies, he has just wasted most of his life in a prison just across the river from where I live for something that he maybe didn't even do.

[Tribesman]

That's a big if, why would this case go back to court, any new information?

This would have gone back to court because from the very day the verdict was delivered its reliablity was widely challenged.
The new information is the statements of the key witnessess being withdrawn and the forensic evidence being challenged by the very people who presented it in the first place.
The scottish commisions report on questionable issues relating to the conviction ran to 800 pages , which is why they rejected the Crowns attempts to block the appeal.

[scotchedpommes]

...the evidence against Megrahi was pretty dubious and apparently one guy was paid millions to give evidence against him and now lives in a mansion in Australia.

And so with that taken into consideration, I'm not too bothered about him being released, in fact I'm glad that he will get to go back to his homeland before he dies, he has just wasted most of his life in a prison just across the river from where I live for something that he maybe didn't even do.

I agree, for the most part. There's more to this though, obviously. [Aside from effects on business deals.] But he would be dead before any appeal cleared his name, though, so his decision to drop it in the deal to go home makes sense.

As for MacAskill? I don't believe he thought Megrahi was guilty, but other than that, he's most likely helped to maul the party. He didn't do himself any favours on Newsnight Scotland when all he seemingly wanted to do was hammer home points about lack of Government power. Can see where he was coming from, but nobody's going to take that from this episode.

On a positive note, from the strength of the negative coverage coming from the right-wing in the US, it looks like it wouldn't take much more for them to include us in some mock miniature axis of evil.