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

Found the following article at the firm very interesting coming from One of Scotlands Best Solicitors:

http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/...shing_of_Megrahi_miscarriage.html

Mackechnie breaks silence and joins Kochler in criticism of airbrushing of Megrahi miscarriage
Solicitor Eddie Mackechnie, who represented Lhamin Khalifah Fhimah, acquitted on the same indictment as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, has spoken out to express his bewilderment and disquiet over the freeing of Megrahi, whom he says is an innocent victim of the Lockerbie affair.

He also criticises Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill's apparent forgetfulness over the three year investigation undertaken by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which concluded a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, and the High Court's two year processing of Megrahi's subsequent appeal.

"The Justice Minister was right to release Baset. It was a decent decision. It was to be expected that as Minister he would support the conviction and laud the Judiciary, Prosecution and Police," he says.

"It was striking he did not mention another Scottish, statutory body. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Had he forgotten their findings in favour of Baset and a new Appeal?"

He also adds that politics "long usurped any role justice had to play."

"The inconvenient truth of this shocking case is that all is far from well within the Scottish legal system and sick to the core in scheming Whitehall. Pressurising a dying man, so desperate to return home, into dropping his legitimate appeal was beneath contempt but at least consistent. To suggest there was no such pressure is preposterous."

Mackechnie's criticisms echo those of UN Observer Hans Kochler, who also wondered why no mention was made by MacAskill in his release statement of the official doubts over the safety of Megrahi's conviction, which was under deliberation by the High Court until it was unexpectedly dropped.

"It is noteworthy that, in his statement, the Justice Secretary did not in any way take note of the fact that - in the years since the trial court's decision on 31 January 2001 - serious doubts have arisen about the guilty verdict and that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) – after four (!) years of painstaking investigations – had stated (in June 2007) that it suspects a miscarriage of justice and had, thus, referred the case back to the appeal court," Kochler said.

"He did – obviously deliberately – overlook the finding of the SCCRC according to which “there is no reasonable basis in the trial court’s judgment for its conclusion that the purchase [by Mr. Al Megrahi] of the items [clothes] from Mary’s House, took place on 7 December 1988.” It does not need special intellectual skills to realize that the entire verdict collapses if there is no proof for the assertion that Mr. Al Megrahi was the person who bought clothes on that particular day in that particular shop in Malta.

"In view of the appeal now having been aborted, the work of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission will have been in vain. The least that is to be expected from the Scottish judicial authorities is that they publish the full report of the Commission. Up to the present moment, not only the full report has not been released into the public domain, several grounds of appeal given by the Commission are being kept secret," Kochler concluded.

Mackechnie's full statement can be read below.

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I am very pleased that Baset has gone home to his wife, family and friends. I strongly believe both Lamin, my original client, and Baset are entirely innocent and thus victims.

To me Baset is a hero and deserved any hint of a hero's welcome he was allowed. He went with Lamin to Holland over 10 years ago expecting justice and never got it. He took the risk for his country and he was welcomed as a hero of his people not because he was ever a terrorist but because he is a son of Libya who suffered for her.

Of course I am sad he abandoned his Appeal he fought so very hard to obtain but I know he had no choice. Politics long usurped any role justice had to play.

The Justice Minister was right to release Baset. It was a decent decision. It was to be expected that as Minister he would support the conviction and laud the Judiciary, Prosecution and Police. It was striking he did not mention another Scottish, statutory body. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Had he forgotten their findings in favour of Baset and a new Appeal?

The inconvenient truth of this shocking case is that all is far from well within the Scottish legal system and sick to the core in scheming Whitehall. Pressurising a dying man, so desperate to return home, into dropping his legitimate appeal was beneath contempt but at least consistent. To suggest there was no such pressure is preposterous.

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Tom Shielding · Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 11

Oh Mr MacAskill. You. will get found out sooner or later. You can't hide the truth forever.

allan mcleod · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 157

Big Wullie - Good Article

Just as we thought. - All the questions at yesterday's "emergency" debate were prearranged. No mention of SCCRC in MacAskill's speech. All our MSP's are involved in this, all of them. Annabel Goldie said, "why not put Megrahi in a nursing home," what a red herring that was. They have perfectly good paliative care facilities in Greenock Prison, or any other prison in Scotland. She knows this. The whole world now knows what they along with us on this forum fighting for truth and justice are up against.
- A corrupt Scottish Government and Corrupt Justice system.

Angeline · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 148

I don't know about anyone else, but during MacAskill's speech, I was (must point out here, I'm of a certain age!!!) shrieking at the TV -What?? What about the SCCRC?

Radio Two yesterday had an article on the Jeremy Vine slot (someone standing in for JV) in which their American guest was claiming as fact that the "Scottish Justice System found this man guilty," again as if that was the end of the matter.

I suspect, with downward spiralling dismay, that the SCCRC, currently considered to be somewhat inefficient, has just been rendered "lame duck" status, and that does not bode well for those who are dependent on that body for their "last chance" at justice.
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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Angeline

Interesting point, Wonder if anyone thought of asking SCCRC for their opinion of Megrahi's appeal being abandoned in such a fashion.

After all they spent a vast amount of public money on his case.

Another interesting point which I think worthy of mention in MacAskill's speech, He said any Inquiry would have to come from London.

How come releasing Megrahi was a devolved matter, but an Inquiry is not.

It was kenny MacAskill that sanctioned the "Fingerprint Inquiry Scotland"

How come He can do one but not the other ?

His Statement can be seen here in answer to Alex Neil SNP MSP's Question:

http://www.thefingerprintinquiryscotland.org.uk/inquiry/76.48.html
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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Did Kenny MacAskill disregard and disrespect Cancer Sufferers when he made his statement regarding the release of Megrahi ?

http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/...liticising_of_judicial_issue.html

Dailly criticises MacAskill's politicising of judicial issue
Solcitor Mike Dailly has criticsed Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill for politicising the compassionate release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

In an exclusive column for the Firm, Dailly also attacks the Minister's description of Megrahi's cancer diagnosis as 'sentence imposed from a higher power, which Dailly says lacked sensitivity to cancer sufferers.

"While our law makes provision for the release of prisoners on compassionate grounds it’s a political decision whether to do so. Professor Alan Miller is right to call for an impartial tribunal to ensure that such decisions are no longer political," Dailly says.

"Despite the claims that Kenny MacAskill was exercising a ‘quasi-judicial’ function, the decision to release Mr Al-Megrahi was not made in judicial language. If it had been it may have been difficult to fault. After all, section 3 of Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 gives the Scottish Ministers power to release a prisoner on licence if they believe there are ‘compassionate grounds’. But Mr MacAskill’s language went far beyond section 3.

"He used this case to make a political speech to the world. A speech about the ‘Government of Scotland’ and its independence; a speech which picked a fight with the UK Government on a premature application for prisoner transfer; a speech which conflated the legal test of ‘compassionate grounds’ with nationalist propaganda asserting compassion as a defining characteristic of Scots and Scotland.

"This episode shows us why politics and judicial decision-making are dangerous bed fellows. Some media commentators have suggested Mr MacAskill’s religious reference was a play to a US audience. Whatever it was, it was a serious lack of judgment to talk about a ‘sentence imposed by a higher power’ in the context of a terminal illness. What does this say to people dying from cancer?"

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