tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073021351804532798.post6109966468416845911..comments2024-03-15T06:02:30.623+00:00Comments on The Lockerbie Case: Urgent questions posed to SCCRC by John AshtonRobert Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03606456028430261555noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073021351804532798.post-30501447149362738892015-11-07T13:35:12.803+00:002015-11-07T13:35:12.803+00:00This is as unfortunate as it gets.
John Ashton&#...This is as unfortunate as it gets. <br /><br />John Ashton's questions are of course relevant, but is he 'legally' involved in the case? I believe this was not a new investigation into the uncertainties of the verdict (in which case SCCRC should ask anybody they'd think had knowledge), but a legal matter (God help it).<br /><br />If it is really the case that SCCRC makes 'repeated requests' for papers from lawyers that are known to have them, and these papers are no granted it is hard not to not find some sympathy for SCCRC. <br />Any side unwilling to release information must hurt its case severely. Similarly, we would also not have accepted a situation where it would have been a great advantage for the prosecution not ever to release the Giaki cables. <br /><br />The two statements by Couper and Kelly are so incompatible that I find it it is impossible to believe that not at least one of them speaks against better knowledge.<br /><br />It may very well be, that 'the fact is that they [SCCRC] didn't want to do this'. <br /><br />Taylor and Kelly state in their press release:<br />"The Commission have very wide powers indeed. They could have made application to the court for access to the materials.We prefaced that in communication with them and asked them to make authority for any application".<br /><br />Playing the ball back is not the same as being helpful. I wonder if it instead would have been possible to write a letter to Megrahi's family, asking them to sign a statement that SCCRC should have anything they asked for. Such a statement would grant the highest authority anyone could ever require.<br /><br />A question like 'Can SCCRC with any reason claim that they were not helped enough by Taylor & Kelly' has an answer, and it could be evaluated by snippets of their correspondence. <br />I can't imagine that we will ever be enlightened with this information. But as matters stands, T&K are under suspicion of not having done their job for Megrahi and not doing what they can to clear themselves allows the suspicion to hang indefinitely. Why they would accept to live with that situation is beyond me, but I am not a lawyer.<br /><br />In any case, for whatever reasons, the outcome of SCCRCs review of the application is a disgrace, is is the statement 'not in the interest of justice' <br /><br />How anybody in their right mind could make such a statement about a conviction even quarterways as uncertain as Megrahi's is beyond me. That same SCCRC reached the opposite conclusion earlier does not make it easier to understand.SMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13272238187226269250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073021351804532798.post-66489675385106789312015-11-07T07:12:55.013+00:002015-11-07T07:12:55.013+00:00Imagine that you were judge in a case and needed t...Imagine that you were judge in a case and needed to evaluate which one of these statements were more true:<br /><br />Couper:<br />...“It is extremely frustrating that the relevant papers, which the Commission believes are currently with the late Mr Megrahi’s solicitors, Messrs Taylor and Kelly, and with the Megrahi family, have not been forthcoming despite repeated requests from the Commission."<br /><br />Kelly: <br />"No indication was given to us until today that the Commission were interested in the part of our actings relating to Mr Megrahi’s appeal being abandoned."<br /><br />What would you do? Now, I don't know what a real qualified judge would do or could do, of course, but I'd say: <br />"Each party please submit to me a copy of the related correspondence, with the parts you find relevant emphasized. Before that is received I'll spend no more time to listen to opinions, questions or statements."<br />SMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13272238187226269250noreply@blogger.com