This sordid tale makes me feel ashamed to call myself British. I always knew that the British establishment stank; now, it is clear to me that it stinks to high heaven! – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph view: The way the Lockerbie bomber gained his release brings shame upon Britain.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of planting the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. Megrahi murdered 270 people, including 51 British citizens. His release from a Scottish jail has caused fresh pain to many of the relatives of those he killed. It has tarnished Britain's reputation abroad, because in spite of the fact that the Scottish Executive has insisted that it took the decision to free Megrahi on its own, there is increasing evidence, including the story we publish today, that the British Government had, at the very least, a powerfully influential role in the decision.
Across the world, there is little doubt that the British Government is perceived as responsible for the Megrahi affair. Diplomatic relations with America have been strained, because Britain has broken a promise given to the US government that the Libyan would not be released before he had served his minimum tariff of 20 years. Worse, Britain is now identified with a policy of preferring money to justice, and being prepared to sell criminals in exchange for trade deals and concessions. That sets an ominous precedent.
The Government is now making the case for Megrahi's release by insisting that contracts with Libya – including BP's £545 million deal involving exploration for new oil reserves in that country – depended on it: not in the sense that there was a formal agreement with Libya stating "we free Megrahi and you give us the oil deal", but in the sense of an informal understanding that the one gesture would be reciprocated by the other. Jack Straw has stated that Megrahi's release was also important to the war on terrorism: Libya's co-operation on intelligence matters required it.
The Government's argument has been greeted with horror in some quarters, on the grounds that justice should never be compromised, no matter how great the costs of holding rigorously to it. We do not accept that principle. There can be cases in which it is reasonable, when the national interest clashes with justice, to prefer protecting the former. The Government has dismally failed, however, to provide a persuasive argument that the release of Megrahi is one of those cases. The Libyan was responsible for one of the worst terrorist outrages perpetrated in peace-time. His guilt has been upheld by the numerous Scottish judges who examined the evidence. He was certainly not solely responsible. But the fact that he had accomplices, and that others ordered the explosion, does not lessen his culpability for it.
Even if it were true that the future of BP's contracts in Libya depended on Megrahi's repatriation, the heinousness of his crime would make most people pause before concluding that that was the correct path to take. The logic of the Government's case seems to be that £545 million, or whatever sum shall eventually be gained from the deals with Libya, covers the murder of 270 people: the money is enough to forgive and forget the crime. >>> Telegraph view | Saturday, September 05, 2009
