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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Scotkaz

Certainly the wording leaves a lot to be desired.

It's almost as if he was urging the Lord Advocate to drop her appeal so Megrahi can be released.

Any decision by Kenny MacAskill now to release Megrahi on any ground would fail because the Lord Advocate has appealed the Unduly Light Sentence handed out to Megrahi.

I have to agree with her "Had he been guilty" his sentence was far too lenient.

Scotkaz.

Can I just ask what kind of sentence the American's would have given him had he been found guilty there ?

We have seen people in Scotland given higher sentences for single murders.

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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 526

Scotkaz.

Can I just ask what kind of sentence the American's would have given him had he been found guilty there ?

Wullie, I have thought about the sentence Mr Megrahi recieved after being found guilty and personally I think that the sentence was "lenient" for such a crime, if he was indeed guilty. I do not think he is guilty and I think the sentence reflects that the judges were unsure too in my opinion.

However when I think of Kenny Richey's trial, were he was offered a plea bargain of 11 years if only he would admit guilt but if he refused they would try him and go for the death sentence. Which is exactly what they did as people know. Kenny also had a three judge panel which was supposed to be more impartial than a jury. These three judges are also three human beings who read and heard about the case and heard what the prosecution theories were. They were not impartial at all.

They offered this sentence deal because they knew the case was not fail safe. they were not sure that they could win because they knew the evidence was dodgy to say the least. but when the deal was refused they went to great lengths to secure a conviction regardless of the evidence.

I think that same principle has happened in Mr Megrahi's case.

If he had been tried in US, chances are he would have recieved the Death sentence. But more likely he would have recieved a life sentence for everyone who died on that flight. Making it a sentence of many hundreds of years. I have heard of people getting 999 years for lesser crimes.

In Scotland we can sentence people without limit of time. that was not done in Mr Megrahi's case either.

Makes you wonder what they are really hiding and who it is they are protecting doesn't it?

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Scotkaz

Even when sentenced to natural life in Scotland (as where Mone & McCulloch by Lord Dunpark) people are released within 30 years.

In America I have no doubt Megrahi would have been dead long before now.

As far as I am aware the Lord Advocate has never indicated she intended dropping any appeal so the comments from our Judges only enhances the theory that a "done deal" has been agreed to send Megrahi home on compassionate grounds and now the Lord Advocate is the only block.

So we can assume the Crown Appeal will be abandoned within the next week then ?
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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 526

Well from what I have just seen on BBC1 it looks like things could take ANOTHER 4 weeks.

Megrahi Latest News

http://news.google.co.uk/news/sea...mp;ned=uk&hl=en&q=megrahi

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 526

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009...ers-pushed-lockerbie-treaty-libya

Gordon Brown has been accused of rushing through the ratification of a treaty with Tripoli that could pave the way for the repatriation of the Lockerbie bomber as part of a British push to protect oil interests in Libya.

Amid signs that a decision on the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi could be made within days, senior MPs and peers said ministers in London had overlooked human rights in their haste to ratify the agreement.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, is poised to decide whether Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, should be allowed to return home on compassionate grounds. The former Libyan intelligence agent, 57, is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years after being convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

Today,three judges at the high court in Edinburgh accepted an application by Megrahi to drop his second appeal against his conviction. The bomber's move has fuelled speculation that he has brokered a deal with the Scottish authorities to clear the way for his return home.

A spokeswoman for MacAskill said that the justice secretary had not yet made a decision and that he could still decide to keep Megrahi in his specially built cell in Greenock prison. Should MacAskill decide to allow Megrahi to return to Libya, he would leave in one of two ways:

• Released into the care of his family on compassionate grounds under existing Scottish law.

• Transferred to a Libyan prison under the terms of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement, signed by Britain and Libya last November and formally ratified on 29 April this year. Currently, this option is seen as unlikely because a Crown appeal against Megrahi's sentence remains outstanding.

MPs and peers on the joint human rights committee have said that they had been denied the chance by the government to scrutinise the treaty properly after ministers rushed through the measure in a bid to protect business interests in Libya.

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, told the committee in a letter on 12 March: "Both the foreign secretary and I believe, in the interests of our judicial and wider bilateral relations with Libya, it is important to ratify... a delay beyond April is likely to lead to serious questions on the part of Libya in regards to our willingness to conclude these agreements."

In a sharply worded response, the committee said: "We... regret that we have been unable to publish a substantive report on the treaty before Easter and, therefore, before ratification."

Andrew Dismore, the Labour chairman of the committee, said that the treaty was rushed through to pave the way for the release of Megrahi.

Members of the committee said that the government was keen to protect British business interests. Richard Shepherd, a Conservative member of the committee, told the Guardian: "We clearly have an interest because of the discovery of even vaster energy resources. Governments are always juggling that. But that is no reason for us not to scrutinise and see whether a piece of legislation is appropriate."

The Earl of Onslow, another Tory member, said: "This is not a good way to deal with matters of justice. One shouldn't allow whether one has a right to drill for oil in the Gulf of Sidra to have any influence on what is essentially a criminal matter."

In recent years, the government has faced criticism for turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in Libya after Tony Blair formally ended Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's pariah status in March 2004, when he visited the Libyan leader in his tent on the outskirts of Tripoli. Blair made the trip months after Gaddafi announced that he was abandoning Libya's programme to develop weapons of mass destruction.

In the years since Blair's visit, Britain has built extensive business interests with Libya. The Duke of York has made two official visits to Libya in the past two years in his role as Britain's special representative for international trade and investment, as well as what Buckingham Palace described as a "small number" of private visits.

Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya, warned that relations would be damaged if Megrahi were allowed to die in prison. But he added: "I think people who try to say [the Megrahi case] is part of an unseemly rush for contract favours are absolutely wrong. This is first and last a judicial matter."

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

For the latest on Megrahi, visit Professor Black's Blog here:

http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/

Private Plane will be leaving from Prestwick today.
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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

According to the article below, Megrahi's defence team are releasing documents today that would have been presented at his appeal, Interesting:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s...erbie-key-figures-call.5658865.jp
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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Crown Office Unrest at Megrahi Documents Release

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/8264119.stm
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Angeline · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 146

The hypocrisy is breath-taking! She "deplores" Megrahi's attempts to have his case heard in this way, and the "only proper place" for such things to be heard is a court?
So why pressure him into dropping the appeal in the first place, then?
The finishing touch is almost funny - that he is putting out his own "selective" view of the evidence. Of course, no-one else involved in this case has ever, would ever, think of doing such a thing. Perish the thought.
I'm delighted this stuff is publicly available, (just started ploughing through it) and hope they put out everything they have into the public domain. Maybe then, the authorities will finally understand - try as they might to keep brushing things under the carpet, there are too many people now determined to get to the truth, and not just in this case.

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