Some details of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's review into the case of the Lockerbie bomber may be made public next year.
The commission investigation concluded Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's conviction may have been unsafe.
The Scottish government has passed an order through the Criminal Procedure Act 1995 that would allow information to be released in February 2010. (...)
It is thought the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) will not be able to reveal much of the detail of its considerable research, since those who provided the information must give their consent.
Gerard Sinclair, the SCCRC chief executive, said: "The Statutory Instrument permits the commission to disclose information only with the consent of those who have provided the information.
"In considering whether it is entitled to disclose information, the commission will also have to have regard to other relevant matters, including the European Court of Human Rights, and data protection legislation and all other relevant law."
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "The Scottish government has always been clear that as much information as possible in this case is published where relevant and where appropriate consents are given.
"The order laid today allows the SCCRC to disclose information it holds and it is now for them to decide what, if anything, they release." (...)
A Lockerbie relative, Pamela Dix, said the reports of Megrahi's worsening condition added to the continuing ordeal of relatives still seeking answers.
Ms Dix, whose brother Peter was among the dead, said: "It really builds the extreme sense of frustration that this whole year has brought.
"The lack of resolution around the criminal aspect of Lockerbie is almost now complete."
She told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "With Megrahi's death we will never know whether if he is truly innocent as he protests and as the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Board considered he might be, or guilty as a Scottish court convicted him."
And she said: "I just find it immensely frustrating to have to sit here in the middle and not know."
[From a report on the BBC News website.]
No one will ever know anything for absolute 100% ever. Reality this big and complex is never absolute. Never.
ReplyDeleteOr rarely.
Anyway, it's always a bit of a guess, a best guess, an educated one. We've already got what seems to me a pretty good guess what happened and why, and educating our guesses can well continue after Megrahi's death. He's already done the batter part of what he can - affirm with every fiber he did not do it - and the rest of the world must do what else there is to do. Some questions will remain unanswered, but I think most of the big ones have been answered, as far as Mr. Megrahi's input is concerned.