The BBC News website has picked up the story about the appointment by the Appeal Court of a special, security-vetted, advocate to view the documents in respect of which the UK Foreign Secretary has asserted public interest immunity. Reevel Alderson writes:
'The Appeal Court in Edinburgh is to appoint a special defender to view confidential documents wanted by the Lockerbie bomber in his appeal.
'It follows an extraordinary hearing held behind closed doors at which the UK government argued that revealing the documents would compromise security....
'The advocate general, who represents the UK government in Scottish courts, asked the court to appoint a security-vetted lawyer who could look at the documents on Megrahi's behalf.
'He would then argue which parts of the document should be published - although judges would make the final decision about how much, if any, should be revealed.
'So far the court has not published its decision, but in a letter seen by BBC Scotland, the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells says it has decided to appoint a special defender....
'Dr Hans Koechler, the United Nations special envoy to the trial in the Netherlands of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing, criticised the development as "intolerable".
'In a BBC interview, Dr Koechler said it was "detrimental to the rule of law." He said: "In no country can the situation be allowed where the accused or the appellant is not free to have his own defence team, and instead someone is imposed upon him."'
The full text of the article can be read here.
The website of the Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm also covers the story, under the headline 'Courts "go Soviet" in Megrahi case'. The article can be read here.
I'd like to know what would happen if Megrahi refused to have an advocate imposed on him?
ReplyDeleteIt appears that he has no choice in the matter. The decision was taken at a hearing from which he and his lawyers were excluded. It is possible that the special advocate will recommend, and that the Appeal Court will order, that the documents (or an acceptable summary of them) be disclosed to Megrahi's legal team. But if this does not happen, the appellant's lawyers could claim a breach of their client's rights under art 6 (Fair Trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights. This could lead to proceedings before the Privy Council in London and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
ReplyDelete