Justice Committee takes evidence from MacAskill and officials

[What follows is the agenda paper relating to today's hearing by the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee into the process that led to the repatriation of Abdelbaset Megrahi.]

Justice Committee
33rd Meeting, 2009 (Session 3), Tuesday 1 December 2009

Inquiry into decision on Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

The purpose of today's item is to take evidence from the Cabinet Secretary and officials [Robert Gordon and George Burgess] on the decision on Mr al-Megrahi on any issue falling within the remit that the Committee agreed for the inquiry (attached). At next week's meeting, there will be an opportunity for the Committee to decide whether it is now satisfied on the basis of the evidence heard, or whether it wishes to continue the inquiry. At that stage, the Committee will also have the opportunity to decide whether it wishes to report to the Parliament.

Remit
The Justice Committee has agreed to undertake a short inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of:

• the application by Mr Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for compassionate release under section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993; and
• the application by the Libyan Government for the transfer of Mr al-Megrahi under the UK-Libya prisoner transfer agreement.

The inquiry will focus on the process followed by the Scottish Government in considering these applications and announcing the Cabinet Secretary’s decision. It will not consider the question of whether the Cabinet Secretary was right to conclude that compassionate release was justified in the circumstances.

Within this remit, the Committee may wish to consider:

• the timescale for consideration of the applications, and the advice and representations taken into account
• the form and timing of the announcement of the Cabinet Secretary’s decision
• the timing of Mr al-Megrahi’s release from prison and return to Libya, and the steps taken by the Scottish Government to ensure that his reception there was appropriate
• the conditions attached to the licence on which Mr al-Megrahi was released.
Among the issues excluded by the inquiry remit are, in particular:
• the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988
• the trial and conviction of Mr al-Megrahi for murder, his subsequent appeals against conviction, or the findings of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in relation to his case
• the circumstances surrounding the negotiation of the UK-Libya prisoner transfer agreement, or the content of that agreement.

The Committee intends to conduct the inquiry, in the first instance, by assessing the available documentation (which may include information that has not so far been published) and then taking evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, relevant officials and others who contributed to the advice on which his decision was based. At that point, which it expects to reach by the end of 2009, the Committee will consider whether it is satisfied, or whether to extend the inquiry further. It will also decide at that point whether to report its conclusions to the Parliament.

Given this approach, the Committee is not at this stage issuing a general call for evidence.

[The following are excerpts from the report on the STV News website of Mr MacAskill's evidence.]

The Justice Secretary has told a Holyrood Committee that medical advice given prior to the release of the Lockerbie bomber was "quite clear".

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was freed in August on compassionate grounds on the expectation that he had three months to live, however, that period expired last month. (...)

Convenor Bill Aitken questioned Mr MacAskill about the time prediction, saying: "We're beyond that now. What we need is supporting evidence that, in all circumstances, it was appropriate to assume that this three-month prognosis was accurate."

The Justice Secretary said he acted on the basis of a medical report provided to him by Dr Andrew Fraser, the Scottish Prison Service's Director of health and social care.

He said: "In the report it was quite clear, and this is not an exact science, but the prognosis was that Mr Al Megrahi fell within the three-month timescale.

"Thereafter it was concluded that he did qualify for the terms of compassionate release." (...)

Mr Aitken said it was not clear if an "unanimity of view" existed among all the doctors who treated Megrahi.

He asked: "Was there a firm consensus that this three-month prognosis was accurate?"

But Mr MacAskill insisted Dr Fraser's report was clear about the "deterioration" of Megrahi's condition and said a three-month prognosis was accurate.

The Justice Secretary added: "That was his advice and that was the advice I took."

[The full Hansard report of the committee session can be read here.]