Tuesday 27 July 2010

Genuine respect for the truth must be at the centre of any system of justice

[This is the heading over a letter from Mrs Jo Greenhorn in today's edition of The Herald. It reads:]

Chris Parton suggests we should put the whole Megrahi affair down to experience and move on (Letters, Monday July 26). I cannot agree. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi’s release is one thing, the truth about Lockerbie is quite another. Recent events, involving the US, have very much backfired on the Americans as newspapers, including The Herald, are calling for a full investigation into Lockerbie, not just Megrahi’s release. I hope such calls grow louder by the day until those who stand in the way of an independent investigation – and they are mainly politicians – are defeated.

I have lately listened to certain politicians, including the current Prime Minister, speak about “justice” and found myself wondering where their particular definition of that word comes from. It is certainly from no dictionary. Those who speak about justice with phoney passion, while at the same time doing all in their power to ensure there is no role for the truth in proceedings, are hypocrites. They insult all of us who truly do believe in justice and who believe, with a genuine passion, that if respect for the truth isn’t at the centre of any justice system then that system is not entitled to use the word justice in its title.

Mr Parton doubts the truth can be uncovered anyway. What we certainly do know is that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission cited six separate grounds to suggest the man convicted for the crime committed over Lockerbie was possibly not the person responsible. I would not apply the “hindsight” or the “spilt milk” approach to such a revelation. My preferred route would be the Court of Appeal, which is where Megrahi’s journey should have taken him ultimately had any sort of justice prevailed.

[The other four letters on the topic are also worth reading.]

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Jo G. Excellent piece of writing.

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  2. And a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. Get over it? Move on? Excuse me?

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  3. Rolfe and CL, the Laurel and Hardy of the JREF Forum, are clearly still operating as a pretty formidable tag team!

    If however the dynamic duo really do want to know why Dr Jim Swire hasn't published his book yet, why don't you just ask him here?

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  4. Or perhaps here: DrJimSwire@aol.com

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  5. Thanks Rolfe. Still in shock that I kept it under 300 words. I think the Herald are too! : )

    Robert thank you for including it here.

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  6. The "move on" guy is one of the Herald's regular correspondents. He usually writes reasonably good letters. However, I think this one came out of "I have to keep my batting average up by writing something about the current hot topic."

    I had the last letter I wrote to the Herald published a couple of months ago. Didn't have anything to do with Lockerbie though. Maybe I should get the electrons shuffling again.

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