Hopes dashed for in-depth inquiry into Lockerbie

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]

A comprehensive public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing is unlikely to go ahead after the UK government said it would not support another investigation, The Scotsman can reveal.

Calls for an inquiry have been growing after the decision of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop a second appeal against his conviction for the 1988 terrorist attack. Families of the victims had believed that many questions surrounding the attack would have been answered during the appeal.

Scottish Government sources also indicated they would be supportive of a joint "cross-border inquiry" between Holyrood and Westminster, but it emerged last night that senior officials have ruled out supporting another investigation.

Without Whitehall's support, experts have said a Scottish Government-initiated inquiry would be futile since it could only look at the workings of the Scottish judicial system and would have little power to call witnesses and demand crucial documents. Accusations have been made that SNP ministers in Holyrood have only floated the idea of a public inquiry to take the heat off the difficult decision facing justice secretary Kenny MacAskill over whether to send Megrahi back to Libya. (...)

Last night Libya's charge d'affaires in London, Omar Jelban, said reports that Megrahi has just three months to live were the reason he has dropped a second appeal and hopes to return to his family shortly.

Two applications have been made by Megrahi's lawyers, one for compassionate release because of his ill-health and the other a prisoner transfer following an agreement between the UK and Libyan governments.

The Scotsman understands that compassionate release is more likely because it is "the least objectionable" to the American government since it does not break the terms of the international agreement that Megrahi would serve his sentence in Scotland.

Yesterday the Scottish Government made clear it did not want to go on the record over its hopes to have a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing until after a decision had been made on whether to send Megrahi back to Libya.

However, sources confirmed that ministers would be inclined to support a public inquiry. One senior source pointed out that, in the past, First Minister Alex Salmond had supported this, but the SNP realise that for it to have teeth it would need to be supported by the UK government.

Last night a senior Whitehall source indicated to The Scotsman that this support would not be forthcoming.

He said there would be no formal comment until after a decision had been made by Mr MacAskill regarding Megrahi's future. But he claimed that the prospect of an inquiry was only being aired in briefings because "SNP ministers don't like to have to make difficult decisions". He claimed Mr MacAskill was "feeling the heat" over having to decide whether to send Megrahi back to Libya and was floating ideas to "create a distraction".

There were also questions from Whitehall over why a public inquiry would be necessary when a man had been found guilty of the crime in a trial run by Scottish judges under Scottish law, which had already been unsuccessfully appealed once.

[Note by RB: There was never any hope that Westminster and Whitehall would cooperate in an enquiry into Lockerbie. The fact that an independent body concluded that Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice and that serious concerns have been raised about the investigation and prosecution cuts no ice with them. They have too much to hide.

A purely Scottish enquiry would of necessity be limited but nevertheless worthwhile. Having an independent person or body scrutinise the investigation, prosecution and adjudication process in the Lockerbie case and determine what, if anything, went wrong would surely help to restore the tarnished reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system.]

There is a further report in The Scotsman headed "Megrahi's mother makes plea for release". It reads in part:

'The Lockerbie bomber's 95-year-old mother has made an emotional appeal for her son to return to Libya.

'The frail woman directed her plea to Scottish ministers, saying: "Please send my son home."

'Hajja Fatma Ali al-Araibi has not been told her son has terminal cancer because her other children fear the shock will be too great.

'She also revealed that her son, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, phoned her at the end of last week to say he hoped to be home for the start of Ramadan on Friday.

'She said he had been called from Greenock prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for mass murder, and said to her: "I hope by Ramadan I will be with you." (...)

'Mrs Araibi appealed for Mr MacAskill to release her "scapegoat" son and said she could not wait to "run out to the street and hug him so tight".

'She said: "I do not close the house door at all. I am expecting him to enter at any moment. For 11 years I have not spent the holy month of Ramadan with him. I am waiting for that day when he comes back."

'Mrs Araibi said she was surrounded by family members as the news of her son's possible release broke last week, including Megrahi's elder brother, Mohammed Ali, and several grandchildren.

'Sending a message to the relatives of the 270 victims of Pan Am Flight 103, she said: "We told them that my son was innocent, that he would not slaughter a chicken at home."'