[This is the headline over a speculative report in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will face stinging criticism in a parliamentary report over the way he handled the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Members of Holyrood's justice committee have made it clear that they do not believe the minister followed Scottish Prison Service (SPS) guidelines in allowing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to go home to Libya on compassionate grounds because he was dying of prostate cancer.
They will say the minister should have sought a second opinion supporting the prognosis that Megrahi only had three months to live.
They will also criticise him for the flimsiness of the medical evidence. (...)
Despite only taking verbal evidence in one session from the minister and his officials and receiving a limited number of written submissions, a majority of MSPs on the committee decided that they would produce a final report in the new year. The conclusions are supported by all the opposition parties.
The Scotsman understands that they also intend to reprimand the minister for failing to get written assurances that Megrahi would not receive a hero's welcome when he returned to Libya. The minister admitted to them he only received verbal promises and never asked for them in writing. (...)
Some organisations, such as the US government, refused to give evidence and the inquiry was unable to look into the dealings between the UK government and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi which led to the prisoner transfer agreement, which was ultimately rejected by Mr MacAskill. This is being looked at by a separate inquiry in Westminster.
Former minister Stewart Maxwell, an SNP member of the justice committee, said: "The fact that this inquiry has had to be brought to an end so soon just underlines how Kenny MacAskill took the right decisions for the right reasons, as every scrap of information demonstrated."
The Scottish Government argue that the limited inquiry has only confirmed that Mr MacAskill made the decision correctly.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The justice secretary took the right decision for the right reasons, based on the recommendations of the parole board and the prison governor, and supported by the medical report submitted by Dr Andrew Fraser, director of Health and Care of the Scottish Prison Service, whose clinical assessment was that a three-month life expectancy was a reasonable estimate for this patient."
I have just found this extract from a recent article by John Pilger
ReplyDelete'The purpose of the Chilcot inquiry is to normalise an epic crime by providing enough of a theatre of guilt to satisfy the media so that the only issue that matters, that of prosecution, is never raised.'
This is much the same for the inquiry into Megrahi's release. A sop is handed to appease the public, to mask the real circumstances of Megrahi's release but most importantly to divert attention away from the criminals who framed Megrahi and caused terrible suffering in Libya under sanctions.
Too true. It gets the spirit of the frame-up as well.
ReplyDelete