The relevant provisions of the prisoner transfer agreement between the United Kingdom and Libya which was ratified today are as follows:
“Art 2(2): A person who has received a liberty depriving sentence in the territory of one Party may be transferred to the territory of the other Party, in order to complete the sentence imposed upon him. To that end he may express his interest to the transferring State or to the receiving State in being transferred under this Treaty.
Art 2(3): Transfer may be requested either by the transferring State or the receiving State.
Art 3: A prisoner may be transferred under this Treaty only if the following criteria are met: (...)
(b) the judgment is final and no other criminal proceedings relating to the offence ... are pending in the transferring State; (...)
(e) the transferring and receiving States agree to the transfer.”
The relevant UK legislation, which the Scottish Government would have to apply in the case of Mr Megrahi, used to be the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 (c 47), section 1 of which provided:
“(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, where—
(a) the United Kingdom is a party to international arrangements providing for the transfer between the United Kingdom and a country of territory outside the British Islands of persons to whom subsection (7) below applies, and
(b) the relevant Minister [defined, in the case of prisoners in Scotland as "the Scottish Ministers"] and the appropriate authority of that country or territory have each agreed to the transfer under those arrangements of a particular person (in this Act referred to as “the prisoner”), and
(c) the prisoner has consented to being transferred in accordance with those arrangements
the relevant Minister shall issue a warrant providing for the transfer of the prisoner into or out of the United Kingdom.”
This provision requiring the prisoner's consent was removed in 2006, but it is abundantly clear that, irrespective of the wishes of the UK, Scottish and Libyan authorities, Megrahi cannot in fact be transferred back to Libya without his consent since he cannot be transferred without his current appeal being abandoned and no-one but Megrahi can instruct the abandonment of that appeal.
I sincerely hope for the sake of justice that he does not abandon the appeal. Although it is grossly unfair that one person's misfortune should be the catalyst for reform, it seems like this is the only way to expose the full truth of this case.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, our sympathies have to be with Mr Megrahi and his family, whatever decision he takes.
For the memory of FBI Spezial Agent und Task Force chief Richard A. Marquise, PART 1:
ReplyDeleteEx Witness no. 528, Richard Louis Sherrow, was primary a special officer for explosive ordnance disposel in the United States Army. In November of 1984 he leaving the army and take up a position as an explosives enforcement officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a law enforcement agency within the USA.
In the end of 1986 officer Sherrow in the company of Mr.Owen and Mr.Casay, to go to Lome, Togo (West Africa) in order of the US-Department of State.
Sherrow and company were taken to the headquarters, army barracks and were shown explosives, firearms, ammunition, military equipment and take some photographs from 2 MEBO MST-13 electronic timers.
Trial Kamp van Zeist excerpt:
Q--And did there come a stage where you were considering returning to the United States?
(Witness 528, Richard Sherrow) A--Yes. Q--And at that stage did you express any interest in taking any of the items back with you? A--Yes, sir.
Q--What were you interested in taking with you? A--I was interested in the timers, also in samples of explosives.
Q--Did you liaise with anybody as to whether it would be possible to do that? A--Yes. Q--Who was that? A--The State Department representative, the embassy personnel. Q--Now, the State Department representative, was that somebody who had travelled with you from the United States? A--Yes. Q--Was it Mr. Casey? A--Yes, it was. Q--I see.
And what was the result of these negotiations? A--Subsequently, we were allowed to -- I was allowed to take one timer and a sample of, I believe, three different types of explosives. Q--Thank you. And how were these items taken away from Togo? A--They were placed in the United States
diplomatic pouch and returned. Q--And who had custody of that?
A--Mr. Casey. Q--So does it follow from that, then, that the items which you were given permission to remove were taken from the country in his custody? A--Yes, sir. Q--And on your return to the United States, did you see any of the these items again? A--Yes, I did. Once we returned to the United States, they were turned over to my custody. Q--I see. Was that all of the items? A--Yes, sir.
Q--And therefore including the timer? A--Yes, sir. Q--How many timers did you remove? A--Only one. Q--And what did you do with it when you returned to the United States? A--I examined it at the headquarters of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, performed bench tests, functioning tests.
Q-- Did you photograph it at the headquarters? A--Yes, I did. Q--Had you also photographed that some timer in Lome? A--Yes. Q--And having performed these tests and photographed it, what did you then do with it? A--I was requested to take it to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and give a briefing on what I found. Q--And did you do that? A--I did.
Q--And did you take the timer with you in order to give that briefing? A--Yes. Q--Did you return to your own headquarters after that briefing? A--I did, yes. Q--And did you take the timer back with you? A--No, I didn't. That was released to their custody.
MEBO important: On the MST-13timer PC-board was printed the name of the manufacturer, 'MEBO Ltd' and Switzerland. Thus Richard Luis Sherrow and the CIA, knows since at the beginning of of 1987, the manufacturer and the address! This explains why the UK expert of RARDE, Mr. All Feraday end of Jun 1989, visit an officer of the Swiss Federal Police about timer and MEBO Ltd...
Continuation follows with the next comment and later on our webpage: www.lockerbie.ch
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland