News from the New Party

Mercy

The Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has decided that the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbasat Ali al-Megrahi, who is terminally ill from prostate cancer, should be allowed to leave prison on compassionate grounds in order to die at home in Libya with his family. 

The Scottish Executive has been under considerable pressure, especially from the United States, to keep Megrahi in prison to serve the remainder of his days in custody.  Much commentary in this country has also opposed the decision to release him.

Kenny MacAskill advanced the following justification for his move:

"Mr al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families to see out their lives, let alone their dying days. No compassion was shown by him to them," he said.

"But that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his final days."

Mr MacAskill continued: "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available.

"For these reasons and these reasons alone, it is my decision that Mr Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer, be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die."

It is readily understandable that many people, not least the relatives and friends of those who died at Lockerbie, either on the plane or in the town, may have strong feelings regarding Megrahi and the prospect of his freedom.  Some have questioned why compassion is being extended to this convicted murderer of 270 people when other terminally ill prisoners are obliged to die in custody, without addressing the possibility that perhaps prisoners who are very old and/or gravely ill, who by definition pose no ongoing risk to the public, should also be freed.

Apart from the question of mercy, however, there are the wider political issues involved.

Former Labour Scottish Office and Foreign office minister Brian Wilson has his own take on the story:

The Nationalists crave to be noticed on the international stage by whatever means. And this week, they succeeded. Rarely can so many decent Scottish stomachs have turned than at the sight of the Saltire being flourished in Tripoli as a centre-piece of the repulsive celebrations to welcome home the mass murderer Megrahi, courtesy of the SNP.

In Wilson's view, the SNP's attempt to sell Scotland as a player on the international stage has put the UK Government in an impossible position and highlights the folly of separatist politics.  Mercy for someone dying from cancer, perhaps -- but the SNP grandstanding on the issue has backfired badly.