Financial Times Editorial Comment: Justice and power

Financial Times Editorial Comment: Justice and power
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: August 21 2009 19:21 | Last updated: August 21 2009 19:21
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2a7bd4de-8e7e-11de-87d0-00144feabdc0.html


Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill used his 15 minutes of fame to full effect this week, explaining the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in terms of “compassion and mercy”. A higher authority would now take over, he intoned, with a sentence “terminal, final and irrevocable”. Mr al-Megrahi is expected to die from cancer within three months.

Mr MacAskill’s handling of the process was despicably self-serving. But, although made by a politician, the decision itself was in keeping with the normal operations of Scotland’s legal system. Mr MacAskill, a Scottish nationalist, emphasised it was taken in Edinburgh not London, a point seized on by the British government as an excellent way of getting itself off the hook.

Unlike the 2007 decision to halt investigation into bribery claims around BAE’s dealings with Saudi Arabia – citing national security – this was a legal decision that does not appear to have been influenced by commercial considerations.

Nevertheless, the minister made a grave mistake in not retaining in UK custody a man convicted of mass murder.

Mr al-Megrahi’s release was lambasted by some, welcomed by others, and used as propaganda by Libya. America and Britain’s leaders demanded Mr al-Megrahi not be feted in Tripoli. Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi pointedly ignored them both.

So, instead of a discreet touch-down, Mr al-Megrahi was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds. Having been extradited from Libya in 1999 in return for the lifting of UN sanctions, Mr al-Megrahi has been pressed into Mr Gaddafi’s service a second time. His release will doubtless be propagandised as a great victory in the dictator’s self-aggrandising quest to present himself as the natural leader of the Arab, Islamic and African worlds. This is unedifying, but inevitable.

Two things are clear. First, despite Libyan attempts to present Mr al-Megrahi’s release as an acceptance of his innocence, it has nothing to do with the legal case.

Second, and most important, the Lockerbie saga should not end here. Despite the investigation of the bombing, the subsequent trial and Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction, questions over who was behind this atrocity have not been fully answered.

The families of the 270 Lockerbie victims have been let down. The full story of what happened still needs investigation. Justice must be seen to be done. That is still not the case.