Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
So...*Conspiracy Hat On* Do you think he government wanted to avoid the embarrassment of a unsafe conviction? That there was additional evidence to suggest the original conviction was for political gain?
|
Well, I do think it appears rather odd that he dropped his appeal despite there being no actual legal requirement to do so... and I think you have to admit that there would certainly have been some "embarrassment", at the very least, if the appeal had continued & the conviction had indeed been found to be unsafe & been quashed (which may have happened, given things such as the six grounds where the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, given the inconsistencies, given the circumstantial evidence, given the expert opinions of people such as Dr. Hans Köchler & Prof. Robert Black, etc., ).
Two quotes from those links...
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dr. Hans Köchler, international observer at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands
The public is also kept in the dark about what Scotland’s Justice Secretary discussed at his meeting with Mr. al Megrahi at Greenock prison, which was indeed an unprecedented step in Scottish legal history. One thing should be taken for certain, however: If Mr. MacAskill is a man of honour, he will not have made granting the prisoner’s request for “compassionate release” conditional upon the latter’s dropping the ongoing appeal. This would not only be morally outrageous, it would also be illegal in terms of Scots law and, as infringement upon a convicted person’s freedom to seek judicial review, in outright violation of the European Human Rights Convention the provisions of which are binding upon Scotland.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Christine Grahame, SNP MSP
Last week he abandoned his appeal. His counsel advised the court that he believed that to do so would "assist" with his "applications".
The previous week I had received an email from a whistleblower in the Justice Department telling me that the Libyan officials were being told in no uncertain terms that he must drop his appeal or there would be no compassionate release.
Al-Megrahi was a desperate man, but I believe there are other desperate men and women – in the US Justice Department and in Whitehall, – all with their own reasons for wanting that appeal to be ditched. Now he is home, but he is still, officially, a guilty man.
|