[What follows is an article posted on the website of the Washington DC publication The Hill.]
Seven senators called on the Scottish government on Monday to keep Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi behind bars for his role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 following recent media reports that he may be released.
Following his conviction in 2001, al-Megrahi – a former Libyan intelligence officer – was sentenced to serve 27 years in a Scottish prison for his role in the bombing of the transatlantic flight that killed 270 people – including 180 Americans on board and 11 Scots on the ground in southern Scotland.
“Our international agreement called for his sentence to be served in Scotland and we believe strongly their should be no deviation from this sentence,” said Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in their letter.
The letter, which calls the bombing “horrific” and “heinous,” was sent to the Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill after recent media reports have speculated that the Scottish government is set to consider al-Megrahi’s early release or transfer back to a prison in his homeland of Libya.
Al-Megrahi is expected to drop his appeal this week, which legally would allow the Scottish government, if it desired, to take action on his imprisonment status.
MacAskill has met with both al-Megrahi and the families of the victims in recent weeks. The meetings have further fueled reports that MacAskill may be considering the Libyan government’s calls for al-Megrahi’s release.
Al-Megrahi, 57, has terminal prostate cancer and has used his health as a reason in pleas for his own “compassionate” release.
The senators’ letter made the case for his continued imprisonment by comparing the bombing to more recent terrorist attacks on Americans.
“Until the tragic events of September 11, 2001, no terrorist act had killed more American civilians,” said the letter of the bombing of the flight, which was headed from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport with a majority of Americans on board.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has also recently called on MacAskill to continue al-Megrahi’s imprisonment until his sentence has been completed.
MacAskill’s aides said no decision has been made regarding al-Megrahi’s release, continued imprisonment, or transfer, according to the Associated Press.
One of these U.S. Senators, Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), was a member of the Bush senior President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) in 1989. It is worth recounting that before submitting their report to President Bush Snr in March 1990, the PCAST members met a group of British PA103 relatives at the U.S. embassy in London on 12 February 1990. Twelve years later, on 11 July 2002, Scottish M.P. Tam Dalyell reminded the House of Commons of a controversial statement made at that 1990 embassy meeting by a PCAST member to one of the British relatives, Martin Cadman: "Your government and ours know exactly what happened. But they're never going to tell." The statement first came to public attention in the 1994 documentary film 'The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie' and was published in both 'The Guardian' of 29 July 1995, and a special report from 'Private Eye' magazine entitled 'Lockerbie, the flight from justice' May/June 2001. Dalyell asserted in Parliament that the statement had never been refuted.
ReplyDeleteFrom which, we can conclude that this latest intervention by the American Senators is a desperate last-minute measure to ensure that Mr Megrahi dies in HMP Greenock. What now has to happen (without fail) is that Megrahi's lawyers withdraw the Minute of Abandonment of his appeal against conviction for the Lockerbie bombing at the procedural hearing of the High Court of Justiciary on Tuesday 18 August 2009.
When this happens, there will of course be red faces in Washington, Westminster and the Elysée palace (possibly in Tripoli), but Kenny MacAskill can hold his head up high whatever decision he takes on the question of Megrahi's release: because the appeal will continue and the truth will out....eventually.
Justice for Megrahi!