A second procedural hearing in Mr Megrahi's appeal is to be held on Thursday, 20 December at 10am in Court 3 of the High Court Building, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh (the same courtroom as the first procedural hearing on 11 October).
I understand that the Crown has not disclosed to Megrahi's legal team the document (relating to timers) emanating from a foreign government that was seen by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission but which the Crown has refused to hand over to the appellant. (New readers should consult the postings on this blog on 11 and 12 October 2007 for background.) It may therefore be that this new procedural hearing has been called to enable the court to hear argument on, and then to decide, this issue. But this is simply speculation on my part.
Megrahi's legal team have until 21 December (ie one day later) to lodge his Grounds of Appeal. I would not therefore expect there to be any discussion on Thursday of whether any of those grounds should be excluded from the Appeal Court's consideration. The court did, however, indicate in October that it wished to have lodged in advance any grounds of appeal relating to inadequate representation by Megrahi's former lawyers. So it is just possible that, if this has been done, there might be some discussion of whether these grounds should go forward to the full appeal hearing. It is more likely, though, that all matters relating to the Grounds of Appeal will be deferred to a later procedural hearing, perhaps in January 2008.
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