[This is the headline over a report published today in The Scotsman. It reads as follows:]
The Conservatives have urged the Scottish Government to release the medical evidence on which it based its decision to free the Lockerbie bomber.
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds two years ago, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given three months to live.
Megrahi gave up his appeal against conviction for the murder of 270 people shortly before his release.
The Scottish Government has asked Westminster to set aside data protection rules to allow the release of more details about Megrahi’s abandoned appeal.
However Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, David McLetchie MSP said: “If any information is to be released then it should be all the medical evidence as to why the SNP government set Megrahi free, something it has consistently refused to do.”
[A similar report appears here in The Sun.
Is Mr McLetchie really saying that it is more important to release the medical evidence relating to Megrahi's repatriation than to release the evidence upon which the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission concluded that his conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice? I find it hard to believe that a lawyer could say this. But Mr McLetchie is a Scottish Conservative. Flawed judgement goes with the territory.]
Except releasing the medical files would still be a dramatic event, because they would reveal that Megrahi was not released for medical reasons.
ReplyDeleteSuch disclosure would increase the demand for a Public Inquiry.
I'm sure McLetchie is just trying to damage the SNP, but it could easily rebound on the conservatives and reveal the truth.
\when the truth comes out, the Tories will be unelectable anywhere for a generation and Mrs Thatcher will not get her State Funeral but will be hastily buried in some small forgettable grave.
ReplyDeleteThe medical evidence won't be released. It is confidential under Data Protection laws that apply to all Scots. Megrahi is covered by those laws since the records exist from his time as a Scottish prisoner. McLetchie knows this: so did Richard Baker the former Labour spokesperson on "Justice" every time he too called for the release of the medical records. To these people it is all still a game. A very sick game to those of us who truly want justice over Lockerbie.
ReplyDelete