Rough‘justice’

When the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case of Abdelbaset al-megrahi to the High Court of Justiciary it said there were clear indications he had been a victim of a miscarriage of justice. It considered six grounds of review and concluded that this miscarriage probably occurred by reason of "unreasonable verdict" and "non-disclosure". In the two decades since the original trial, evidence has emerged which makes it difficult not to agree with Nelson Mandela, who also said there had been a serious miscarriage of justice. UN observer Hans Köchler and others who attended the proceedings called the trial “shambolic”.

Sheriff Graham Cox, the first of the Scottish judiciary to meet the two Libyan suspects, made no secret of his belief that the wrong men were in the dock – a view later endorsed by Scotland's senior law officer in the investigation, Lord Fraser. Finally, the al-megrahi family has always been supported by Dr Jim Swire and the Rev John Mosey, whose daughters died in the atrocity.

Predictably, senior Scottish judges have refused permission for the al-megrahi family to continue a legal battle to clear his name at Britain’s highest court. Lord Carloway et al ruled the family’s arguments did not pass the legal tests needed to refer the case to the UK Supreme Court.

As a famous tennis player used to say: “They cannot be serious!”

(REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews