Editorial
In the name of Braveheart 28 August 2009 No one could describe the actions last week of Kenny MacAskill as politically or diplomatically astute. No matter all the furore and political posturing, it can be silenced by that one question: what on earth did he have to gain? It was not his choice to have to make this decision and yet because an application was made to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, it was his responsibility to do so. He had to consider this request alongside the application already on the table for a prisoner transfer as set out by the agreement with Libya and the UK Government, brokered by an outgoing Prime Minister who failed to consider the consequences for Scotland. MacAskill refused the PT on the basis that the United States Government was adamant that it had assurances from the UK Government that anyone convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, which had killed so many American innocents, would serve their sentence in Scotland. The UK Government shamefully declined to offer any succour to that belief but simply told the Justice Secretary that it saw no legal barrier to transfer. MacAskill declined the PT because of the lack of clarity about what was agreed at the time of the pre-trial negotiations. On compassion, MacAskill faced a no-win situation. Had he refused the application and Megrahi had died on Scottish soil and been sent home in a bodybag as a martyr, our reputation as a civilised nation, with a just and compassionate justice system, would have been in tatters and MacAskill could, quite rightly, be accused of not following the spirit of the law set down within section three of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993, which gives Scottish ministers the power to release prisoners on compassionate grounds, compounded by further guidance from 2005 that a prisoner who is terminally ill is eligible to be considered for release. No prisoner who is about to die has ever been refused this final act of mercy. And yet still the debate goes on about what motivated MacAskill. Whether you agree with his decision to return a convicted killer home to die or not, you can not seriously doubt his integrity and dogged pursuit of due process. I have said before in this very column that criminal justice is a poisoned chalice but who would have thought it could be this toxic? There is no issue in society that cuts so deep or scars the nation’s psyche as much as crime and punishment. It encompasses emotions of revenge and hate, of pain and of passion and of deep-seated anger. Never more true than in this case. But Scotland has rightly been proud of a criminal justice system that operates independently of politics and yet when it comes to one of the biggest decisions to ever test that process, we uniquely leave it to a an elected politician who then becomes subject to the vagaries of political tribalism. This should not be a political decision and given Alex Salmond’s outrage at the PT agreement signed by Blair with Libya when there was only one Libyan prisoner held in a UK jail and that was in Scotland, Salmond and his army of civil servants should have then spent a bit of time thinking about the potential consequences and how Scotland should meet them. Nobody could have predicted Megrahi’s ill-health but isn’t good government about ticking all the boxes and thinking strategically through every eventuality. He didn’t and it was left to one of his ministers to judge. We are now faced with the unedifying spectacle of MSPs applying normal opposition brouhaha to a decision that we are told was not made on political grounds. Does it really matter if Megrahi is going to die in three months, nine months or a year? He is going to die of prostate cancer, which isn’t pleasant. Would the opposition have preferred he did this in Greenock prison which we now know has a medical centre not fit for purpose, in a hospice among other patients who may not wish their last days to be spent with a convicted killer or in a house in Newton Mearns which is neither equipped to care for a man in the throes of death requiring palliative care nor practical in terms of the policing efforts required to keep him there? We don’t have the death penalty in Britain but some of the undignified ranting is taking us frighteningly close. Of course the American families who lost their loved one are outraged but their wounds weren’t reopened, they will always be there. And of course it was sickening to see Saltires waving in Tripoli as the mass murderer returned home but it is not in our gift to control the actions of a people who believe they are welcoming home a victim of a miscarriage of justice. This is a moment for all to accept what may be an unpopular decision for some and to put trust above tribalism and go forward as a mature Parliament that can make big decisions for the right reasons. Holyrood Magazine - issue 217 | Next article Related articles: The crazy cuts competition 5 September 2010 Unavoidable truth 25 June 2010 Cashing in on confusion 11 June 2010 A bridge too far 28 May 2010 When two become one 17 May 2010 See all articles in this category Your comments
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