Dr Swire's article in The Scotsman

I am grateful to Dr Jim Swire for sending me the full text of the article that appeared in The Scotsman on 14 March (see post on that date on this blog). It reads as follows (the version in The Scotsman was slightly edited):

"The issues here are tied into the development of the Scottish devolution process, they involve a great deal more than the sanctity of Mr Megrahi's (described by your headline as 'the Lockerbie bomber') appeal process.

"As the Lockerbie case progressed, the prosecution found itself in possession in 1996 of material that Mr Miliband now claims cannot be divilged to the defence. This occurred originally, it is said, because at the time, Scotland's Lord Advocate was ex officio a member of the UK government.

"Mr Miliband has, as your article says, now taken out Public Interest Immunity certificates(PIIs) to 'protect' the documents from release to either the defence or the public.

"Since a basic tenet of Scottish criminal law is 'equality of arms' between the defence and prosecution in a criminal case, it is hard to see how anyone can contend in the present circumstances that the 2nd appeal could be considered fair. Specially since the SCCRC seemed to be including the contents of these documents (which they had also been shown) in their reasons for referring the case back.

"PII certificates, carry as their justification and title, the interests of 'the public'. What may be at stake here, unless a solution is found in the High Court, is the freedom of the Scottish criminal system to be, and to be seen to be, independent of political control from Whitehall.

"If that absolute independance of Scottish law were not to be decisively established, and soon, it would be a black day indeed for the scottish public, which presumably Mr Miliband also claims to serve.

"The citizen needs to have faith in the independence and fairness of his judicial system, which he might need to use to protect himself from injustice imposed by his own government, let alone that in Westminster: selective disclosure to the prosecution in so grave a criminal case cannot be right."