Should the Scottish or US governments seek the re-arrest and extradition of Abdelbasset al-Megrahi?

[ichkeria]

...when the new administration takes hold in Libya?

[anneasquith]

whoever gets to him first.

[anotheoldgit]

After letting him go the first time around, Scotland should have no dealings with him whatsoever.

If he can be traced and arrested, then he should be turned over to the Americans, they will know what to do with him.

[Gromit]

No, he was fitted up by the CIA.

Someone else did it.

He was freed to avoid his Appeal which would have humiliated the Justice system.

[jake-the-peg]

On what grounds?

[anotheoldgit]

http://theoriesofcons...tory-of-lockerbie.htm

I wouldn't have put you down as a 'conspiracy theorist' Gromit

[Gromit]

Nelson Mandela was released from a life prison sentence on humanitarian grounds.

Maybe we should round him up at the same time?

[anotheoldgit]

There you go again looking back into history to come up with an irrelevant diversion.

Re- Nelson Mandela, no he served his time.

[Gromit]

AOG

In this instance there isn't much evidence he did it.

- He was identified by a Maltese shopkeeper five years after he is supposed to have bought a shirt.
- The shopkeeper has since been proven to be a liar.
- The shopkeeper was paid ``a great deal of money by the CIA.

A Jury would never convict anyone if those facts were known to them.

[jackthehat]

I have never had any real confidence that Al-Megrahi was directly responsible for the bombing.
I understand the fury of the friends and families of those who suffered that the one person ever held accountable was released under such confusing and contradictory circumstances.
If he is re-arrested I think that a whole new trial will have to be called where evidence withheld from the first will show that (a) he had little/no diect involvement and (b)there are other more highly-placed Libyans who need to be brought to book.
However, if, and/or when the person who it is claimed shot WPC Yvonne Fletcher is handed over, it would be satisfying to think that they actually *are* responsible for her murder rather than some sacrificial offering given up to appease those crying out for justice.

[Zeuhl]

Obviously, there were forces applied to this case which were much more powerful and urgent than the search for 'Truth'.

Even Dr Jim Swire, father of a victim and prominent member of the british families organisation became a founder member of a lobby group pushing for megrahi's release and a review of the case.

[DrFilth]

jack one problem with the Yvonne Fletcher case , diplomatic immunity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10436729

[jackthehat]

Until we know who did it, we don't know whether Diplomatic Immunity can be claimed.......
The Libyans may decide to name the perpetrator even if *we* can't prosecute him.......(or her).

[anotheoldgit]

Just harken to the apologists, and yet they dare to call me an apologist for the EDL.

I think the case against this mass murderer is stronger than the case against the EDL.

[ichkeria]

...just to be clear: when I said: "Scottish or US governments?" I meant "should either of them?", not "which of them?"

[Gromit]

AOG

I am not apologising for Megrahi. I am saying on probability, he did not do it.

I would be interested to know which bit of the case for his guilt you find most compelling?

[Mickey-Mousse]

Would the police arrest and charge someone if they weren't 100% sure of their guilt?

[emmie]

Mickeymousse, of course, people have been convicted on the flimsiest of evidence, tried and hanged. Not recently perhaps, but let's just say that the law doesn't always get it right.

[Zeuhl]

<<Would the police arrest and charge someone if they weren't 100% sure of their guilt? >>

Yes of course they do. The most significant pressure on police forces is to get a result ie a conviction.

Hence the long list of miscarriages of justice where case reviews have revealed that evidence was suppressed, distorted or created and officers knew they had (or probably had) the wrong man but were propelled by the need for 'a result'.

[bednobs]

isn't the EDL reference an irrelevant diversion too?

[Zeuhl]

wiki <<During the early 1990s there was a series of high-profile cases revealed to have been miscarriages of justice. Many resulted from police fabricating evidence, in order to convict the person they thought was guilty, or simply to convict someone in order to get a high conviction rate. The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad became notorious for such practices, and was disbanded in 1989.

em <<Not recently perhaps>>?

Well Barry George was wrongly convicted only in 2001. The police are still nowhere near finding jill dando's killer.

David Carrington-Jones was released on October 16, 2007 , after spending six years in jail for a rape he did not commit, having been previously found guilty on two counts of rape and sexual assault against a pair of teenage sisters in December 2000.

Suzanne Holdsworth served three years of a life sentence after she was convicted in 2005 of murdering Kyle Fisher, a neighbour's two-year-old son, by repeatedly banging his head against a wooden bannister at her home in Hartlepool. She was found not guilty in 2008 by the Court of Appeal after new medical evidence suggested Kyle may have died from an epileptic seizure.

And the list goes on as there always cases going through drawn out appeal processes.