The dark cloud over justice in Scotland

Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer has today posted on his Intel Today website a long series of quotes about the Lockerbie case. These demonstrate just how widespread and pervasive is scepticism about the justice of the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

One of the factors that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has to consider in relation to the recent application by the Megrahi family is whether it is in the interests of justice that there should be a further appeal. The quotes published by Dr De Braeckeleer starkly illustrate precisely how unimpressed knowledgeable observers are about the performance of the Scottish criminal justice system in the Lockerbie case (and those knowledgeable observers extend far beyond the “usual suspects” like Dr Jim Swire and me). It is manifestly in the interests of justice -- and in the interests of the Scottish justice system -- that our courts should be accorded the opportunity to rescue their tarnished reputation. It is difficult to see how else the dark cloud over the administration of justice in Scotland can ever be lifted.