The Scottish Government's press release on events to mark Mandela Day can be read here. The last paragraph states: "Last month Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a video message to the people of Scotland welcoming plans to mark Mandela Day and he said he was delighted that First Minister Alex Salmond, the Scottish Government and the people of Scotland were marking the day."
At the time of Archbishop Tutu's message, I wrote on this blog: "Given that Archbishop Tutu is a Justice for Megrahi signatory, and given the role that Nelson Mandela played in facilitating a Lockerbie trial (and the interest he took in Abdelbaset Megrahi's fate thereafter) would it not be entirely appropriate and gracious for the Scottish Government to mark Mandela Day by announcing the independent inquiry into the Megrahi prosecution and conviction that the Archbishop, along with the other signatories, has called for?"
The Scottish Government press release does not list this as one of the Mandela Day events. What a surprise and disappointment!
The appeal should be resurrected in the name of one of the victim's relatives. Both Salmond and MacAskill are on record as saying that this is the way to procede so any attempt to block it, as I know some here think they would, would bring their integrity into question in the run-up to the referendum. After Megrahi's name is cleared we can begin the task of finding out who the real culprits were and an independent inquiry could be part of that process.
ReplyDelete"Megrahi Day" events? Did I miss something?
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