The answer to this question is yes. What matters is whether the grounds of appeal (1) if successful, would lead to the conviction being quashed and (2) are arguable, ie not on the face of it doomed to failure. These tests are clearly satisfied in cases, such as Abdelbaset Megrahi’s, where an independent expert body (the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission) has referred the case to the Criminal Appeal Court on the ground that the conviction may have amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
Examples of recent murder cases in which interim liberation was granted pending the appeal are the Campbell and Steele case (where the appellants had been convicted of the murder of six people) and the Nat Fraser case.
Will the High Court grant interim liberation tomorrow? Provided the court is satisfied about security issues (both Mr Megrahi’s personal security and the measures in place to ensure that he will not abscond) the criteria seem to be satisfied (and this is wholly without reference to the grave state of his health). But no-one has ever contended that the Lockerbie case is other than exceptional.
[The BBC News website's advance report of the interim liberation hearing can be read here.]
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