Patrick Haseldine and Hans Köchler

I am grateful to Patrick Haseldine for copying to me the following e-mail exchange between himself and Professor Hans Köchler, the United Nations appointed observer at the Lockerbie trial.

Dear Robert,

You will, I think, be interested to see my exchange of emails with Dr Hans Koechler, the United Nations Observer at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial:

Date:	Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:27:10 +0000 (GMT)
From:	"Patrick Haseldine"
To:	info@i-p-o.org

Dear Dr Koechler,

Deemed to be outside the remit or powers of the Prime Minister and Government, my latest petition to PM Gordon Brown (calling for the Counter Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police to be in charge of any new investigation into the Lockerbie bombing) has been rejected this week (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SAfricaTerrorism/).

The ePetitions team gave the following explanation for the rejection: Criminal investigations are instigated by the police, not by the Prime Minister. You should take your request to the police authorities.

I understand that it was Prime Minister Thatcher who decided early in 1989 that the original Lockerbie investigation should be controlled by the small Dumfries and Galloway force - in liaison with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and involving British and US intelligence - rather than by a specialist national police unit based in London. I had hoped that Prime Minister Brown would reverse that decision for a new investigation, but it could be that the powers devolved in 1998 from the House of Commons to the Parliament in Edinburgh preclude him from doing so.

References supporting the text of the rejected petition can be found at the website of Professor Robert Black (http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2008/01/patrick-haseldine-on-lockerbie.html).

Yours sincerely,

Patrick Haseldine

From:	"info@i-p-o.org" info@i-p-o.org
To:	patrick.haseldine
Date:	Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:39:33 -0500

23 February 2008

Dear Mr. Haseldine!

Thank you for the information on the reply from the Prime Minister's office.

In view of the many revelations during the last two years in the English and Scottish media, the Scottish authorities should undertake an investigation into the handling of the Lockerbie case - and possible criminal misconduct - by the Scottish police and judiciary. The Scots have to demonstrate that they are capable to handle judicial matters properly.

Devolution in matters of criminal justice is meaningless if they are not able to assert their authority vis-a-vis the UK government. The High Court's decision on the disclosure of the "secret" document provided by a "foreign" government will be the litmus test.

With best regards

Hans Koechler

[Note by RB: The final paragraph of Professor Köchler's message sets out precisely what is at stake for the Scottish criminal justice system in the present appeal.]