http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8215807.stm



With friends like that, who needs enemies

Whether Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's guilty or not (and it's up for debate), I don't see why the victims' families should have had to tolerate all these allegations and anguish over what should have been legal due process (the appeal), but clearly hasn't been.

It's only early release, it's not like the Scottish government have exonerated him of all blame.

He shouldn't have got early release under the circumstances he did, that's all I'm saying. Hard to have faith in the system when cnuts like Brown and Gaddafi get involved if nothing else...

It had nothing to do with Brown, or the UK government. The decision was for the Scottish government, and TBH I'm glad they didn't cave to US pressure.

^ It seems to have had everything to do with Gordon and the government - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see more allegations in tomorrow's papers. The rumours of government involvement were there days before the decisions became public knowledge, including the very unusual step of dropping an appeal...

It was the bomber who dropped his appeal, not the government. It was done to expedite the release process. And considering the UK government was opposed to the release, I'd be very surprised if they had anything to do with it.

Edinburgh and London don't exactly see eye-to-eye at the moment either.

I thought he was given a life sentence. Life sentence should mean until death in prison. Compassionate leave is not applicable for life sentences.

A "life sentence" means that you can be recalled to prison by Her Majesty or the Home Secretary upon a breach of parole conditions. In the United Kingdom life only means life behind bars should the Court or the Home Office impose a whole-life tariff, which is very rare.

Then it isn't a 'Life sentence' then, only an 'indeterminate sentence'.

I know it was the bomber who dropped the appeal, and why would you do that unless the odds were in your favour beforehand? And as I thought we'd see more allegations, we appear to have FO involvement from the minister for Libyan relations no less:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 806466.ece

Seemingly an attempt at spinning from the FO too:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/james ... f-control/

Meanwhile Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of the UK, is taking his time making any kind of statement considering everyone else has, amid the allegations that he and the Crazy Colonel (from the Colonel himself!) were having very cosy chats.

The 'public interest' immunity certificate on the case makes it all look even dodgier... Considering all that, you can't justifiably begrudge anyone who wants answers about the release - the whole thing looks like a sickening little deal at this point.

As if the Scots would take instruction from London.

Legally at least, they have to:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8216589.stm

Hence the alleged involvement from the FO and Flash Gordon - neither of them exactly making themselves look good, and especially not when David Miliband does his 'deeply hurt' bit when he's the one who's in charge of the FO!

This falls under Justice, not Foreign Affairs. Otherwise it would have been London who made the decision.

The only way London could have overruled Edinburgh is if they had repealed the Devolution Act, which is not only impossible at the moment (Parliament is in recess) it would go down like a lead balloon.

That's the way it should have been ideally, but the government and it's ministers have obviously seen fit to muddy the waters and then attempt to say 'it's a matter for Scotland', which is what I'm arguing against. Also, you could definitely argue it's a foreign matter!

I find it unacceptable that we can't even be sure there was sufficient evidence against the man convicted of the worst ever attack on British citizens (not to mention the most expensive criminal trial in British legal history), without having to question if anyone was pulling strings...