The only report that I have been able to find on the internet about day three of the procedural hearing comes from Reuters Africa. It reads in part:
“Scotland's top judge called on the British government on Thursday to provide him with two secret documents relating to the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.
“Lord [Justice General] Hamilton, sitting with two other appeal court judges in Edinburgh, said the lawyer representing the government should ‘produce for the court the documents in question ... subject to appropriate security measures being in place within seven days.’
“He said the judges would consider the documents, which British Foreign Secretary David Milliband has declared secret under a Public Interest Immunity (PII) order.
“Lord Hamilton said the judges would weigh up how important it was that the appeal be heard in a closed court, to which not even the defence team could be admitted for security reasons.”
There is, I am sure, no question of the appeal being heard behind closed doors. What is at issue is whether the question of disclosure of the documents should be decided in camera.
That this is, in fact, the position seems clear from the BBC News report that has just been posted. There will be a closed session after the documents have been produced to the judges, who will then decide what further disclosure (if any), and to whom, should be made.
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