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Release Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi or not?

release al-Megrahi from prison or not?

  • al-Megrahi should die in a Scottish prison serving his sentence

    Votes: 61 37.4%

  • Transfer al-Megrahi to a Libyan jail to continue his sentence at home

    Votes: 19 11.7%

  • Release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds

    Votes: 83 50.9%
  • Total voters
    163
weltweit said:
Why are you so certain, I mean did this guy not kill hundreds of people?



I like private polls. People can be honest and vote what they think rather than what they think others think they think.
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Suppression of evidence, adulteration of evidence etc. The Maltese shopkeeper who only identified him after being shown his photo several times, and getting a nudge at the correct one, for example.
 
Sasaferrato said:
Suppression of evidence, adulteration of evidence etc. The Maltese shopkeeper who only identified him after being shown his photo several times, and getting a nudge at the correct one, for example.
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One of the shoddiest cases ever. Plenty of people have written at length about it - private eye did a long series - but apparently someone must pay the blood price. On that basis of course I think he should be let out, but then I don't think he should have been put in in the first place.
 
On the basis that he's almost certainly set up then yeah, let the man home to die with his family.
 
The case against him was extrememly suspect. Even some ex-CIA officials have stated they have doubts.
I can't remember all details of the top of my head but in general:

- tampering and forging of entries in a forensic lab book

- "crucial evidence" in the form of a piece of recovered circuit board of a type known to be used by libyan bombs. An employee witness swore under oath that he was asked/cajoled by an unidentified contact to steal one of these circuit boards from his employer and hand over to unknown person.

- main witness (the shopkeeper) who was extrememly prompted and led and many experts believed to have perjured himself.

- payments made from iran to known palestinian millitant contacts immediately prior to the bombings.

- the German police investigation into suspected iranian linked terrorist group found timing mechanisms that were set so they would have exploded at the same height/time as the Lockabie bomb.

- the german police were told to back off and leave it apparently.

- intelligence reports that within Iranian internal structures some people were claiming responsability, in retaliation for Iranian passenger jet the US shot down shortly before lockerbie

The Iranian/Syrian angle seems to be that they desired revenge for the US shooting down an iranian passenger jet 4 days (weeks?) earlier.

The US/UK angle seems to be that it was shortly before 1st gulf war and US/UK could not afford to antagonise Iran and have them get mixed up in the invasion of Iraq. So they needed a patsy and Libyan intelligence officer el-megrahi worked.

Private eye have has some good articles, and many of these facts are well recognised (or even recognised during the actual trial).
 
And yet..the americans are still convinced...and demanding he stay in jail til he dies....disrespecting our judicial system and blatantly baring the differences between us like an aggressive baboon hooting at a wise old gorilla that can play drums.
 
But if there are all these doubts about his conviction why did his first appeal fail?

And why has he cancelled his second appeal?
 
DexterTCN said:
And yet..the americans are still convinced...and demanding he stay in jail til he dies....disrespecting our judicial system and blatantly baring the differences between us like an aggressive baboon hooting at a wise old gorilla that can play drums.
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The States can go to heck!!!

They, like other countries, feel that their version of law and order must be the same as theirs.

:mad:
 
DRINK? said:
I'd ask the families of those killed - if one of them wanted him kept in there I'd go with that, if they were all quite happy to let bygones be bygones then I'd let him go....this assuming his conviction is just which I suspect it is not
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The families of those killed are understandably likely to say no don't release him. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't though. As others have said his conviction is extremely shaky so it's possible that if he were in good health that he could have success on appeal but he doesn't have time. I think he should be able to go home to his family to die.
 
Megrahi should be released. What purpose would there be in forcing him to die in gaol? Public safety won't be an issue, and if it's retribution we want to serve, he should have been hanged years ago. Keeping him gaoled while cancer takes him is both cruel and pointless.
 
It's all about the oil (as usual):

Andrew Dismore, the Labour chairman of the committee, said the treaty was rushed through to pave the way for the release of Megrahi.

Committee members said the government was keen to protect British business interests. Richard Shepherd, a Conservative member, told the Guardian: "We clearly have an interest because of the discovery of even vaster energy resources. Governments are always juggling that. But that is no reason for us not to scrutinise and see whether a piece of legislation is appropriate."

The Earl of Onslow, another Tory member, said: "This is not a good way to deal with matters of justice. One shouldn't allow whether one has a right to drill for oil in the Gulf of Sidra to have any influence on what is essentially a criminal matter."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/19/ministers-pushed-lockerbie-treaty-libya
 
Good to hear the entertaining Earl of Onslow comment. He's quite right, but realpolitik is unavoidable here, as it has been throughout the case. Stick Megrahi on a plane home and have done with him.
 
Azrael said:
Good to hear the entertaining Earl of Onslow comment. He's quite right, but realpolitik is unavoidable here, as it has been throughout the case. Stick Megrahi on a plane home and have done with him.
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It's quite interesting how the Urban 75 reaction is quite different when the oil company involved is BP instead of Shell. :D
 
mitochondria said:
I would release him but only because the case is weak.
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We can't have degrees of conviction. If the case against Megrahi is weak his conviction should be quashed. Its perceived strength shouldn't play any part in his release. No terminally ill convict should be forced to die in prison, even if their guilt is beyond doubt.
 
The case against him is so weak he should never have been convicted. We should tell Clinton to go get stuffed.
 
Azrael said:
... No terminally ill convict should be forced to die in prison, even if their guilt is beyond doubt.
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But that is what a life sentence means, you stay in till you are dead.

He had a 27 year sentence though didn't he, not a life sentence?
I don't recall.
 
Azrael said:
Megrahi should be released. What purpose would there be in forcing him to die in gaol? Public safety won't be an issue, and if it's retribution we want to serve, he should have been hanged years ago. Keeping him gaoled while cancer takes him is both cruel and pointless.
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agreed. except i wouldn.t have hanged him at all. didn.t the us bomb a hospital in libya? who is languishing in jail for that?
 
weltweit said:
But that is what a life sentence means, you stay in till you are dead.

He had a 27 year sentence though didn't he, not a life sentence?
I don't recall.
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You're right, Megrahi had a 27 year sentence, although if he's dead before then, the difference is plainly theoretical. (Not to mention macabre!) I dislike life sentences in general, but certainly in cases of terminal illness, compassion should be shown and the sentence set aside.
quimcunx said:
agreed. except i wouldn.t have hanged him at all. didn.t the us bomb a hospital in libya? who is languishing in jail for that?
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One wrong doesn't excuse another.

Our justice system should be honest. Either we have retribution or we don't. In Megrahi's case, if retribution is the order of the day, it should have been done openly via an execution, giving Megrahi time to prepare for a set and dignified end. If instead we want rehabilitation, Megrahi should have been set free when he no longer posed a danger. Warehousing until death serves neither end and is cowardly in its dishonesty, not to mention cruel and pointless.
 
I would like to comment on the poll options.

al-Megrahi should die in a Scottish prison serving his sentence
- this is the only non-misleading option in the poll. It is how I voted.

Transfer al-Megrahi to a Libyan jail to continue his sentence at home
This is a false option. If Megrahi goes to Libya he will serve no further sentence since he committed the bombing on the orders of the Libyan state as a covert military action the Libyan state (Gaddafi) is not about to further punish his own agent is he?

No what will happen if and when Megrahi returns will be EXACTLY the public shouts of "Allah Akbar" and the burning US flags that we saw when Megrahi's co-accused returned to Libya. Get real 15% of people who voted for this option. :rolleyes:

Release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds
Those are the grounds that the numpty (Scottish for "muppet") Queen's ministers of the SNP government of the UK state in Scotland as devolved under the demon devolution of the UK constitution from hell will state.

However, Salmond and MacAskill are being manipulated by UK interests who are releasing Gaddafi's state agent as a quid pro quo for oil deals as part of a political agreement.

Salmond is in power in the Scottish government despite not having a majority of SNP members of parliament precisely because the UK and the Queen's Privy Council (the Right Honourables) who rule the Queen's realm feel he is "one of them" repeating the nonsense of "Constitutional monarchy" and therefore is trusted by them not to rock the boat.

The US also wants oil deals with Libya but cannot fully face the rage of Americans when Gaddafi comes to New York for his official "in from the cold" ceremony without having someone to push some of the blame for Gaddafi's rehabilitation onto - in this case the US government seems content to allow UK ministers to set the Scottish ministers up as the "bad guys" in comparison because at least the US government will oppose the release of Gaddafi's agent who bombed Pan Am 103 out of the sky.

Of course the Scottish ministers are "bad guys" to some extent (soft on terrorism and justice) in this but if the US really opposed the release of Megrahi they could reimpose sanctions against Libya and demand the extradition of Megrahi to the US, extraordinarily or otherwise.

I don't think the US will go that far because I think they value the oil deals more.

As a Scottish republican, I would put Gaddafi and the UK in the deep freeze and keep Megrahi in jail and put Gaddafi and Queen Elizabeth in jail with him.
 
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