Scottish Justice
It sure is good to know that Scottish politicians agree that while Abdel Baset al-Megrahi served only eight years for murdering 270 people, it was all in the name of “justice” rather than any kind of quid pro quo. But what I want to know is, how on earth did Scotland get full jurisdiction over this matter, to the exclusion of all other interested parties? This was a flight from London to New York, whose only connection to Scotland was that the bomb happened to go off there. If the bomb had gone off a few hours later, while the plane was over the Arctic circle, who’d have had custody of al-Megrahi then? Santa?
September 1st, 2009 at 1:24 am
FWIW, I’ve seen multiple articles that say that the original extradition agreement did not give them the authority to do this. I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from General Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove: “It appears that Colonel Ripper has exceeded his authority.”
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September 1st, 2009 at 7:00 am
Eleven Scots were killed on the ground from the debris. I think it was a case of forum conveniens since the investigation was, and the investigation largely took place, in Scotland. Venue not jurisdiction. Techically, we can try Megrabhi de novo here, now, if we got our hands on him. In Germany, too, since 47 of the victims had transferred from a Berlin flight.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:15 am
That makes sense. I guess what I’m failing to see at a less technical level is why it wasn’t a no-brainer that once the Scots became too lazy / cheap / stupid / “compassionate” to hold this monster in prison one day longer, it was now time to extradite him rather than release him over the objections of every country that had (1) jurisdiction and (2) an extradition treaty with Great Britain? Or has Scotland gone Berserkeley on us and decided it gets to have a foreign policy of its own?
September 1st, 2009 at 9:56 am
I am inclined to believe the accusations of “blood for oil”. That is, that the British government machinated the release in order to sign an oil deal with Libya.
I can understand why Qadaffi would insist on this. He is a “charismatic” leader — in the bad sense that his power rests on the Libyan people’s perception of him and not on law or tradition — and this was hurting him. Also hurting his heir apparent. Meghrabi was a cause celebre in Libya, as we saw from the celebrations of his release.
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September 16th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
And why could not the US have blocked the transfer by issuing an arrest warrant for him and demanding that the UK turn him over to us for trial?
September 17th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Not sure, but my understanding is that originally Libya refused to extradite him, and finally agreed to do so on the condition that he be tried in Scotland and nowhere else. I guess Libya knew more about Scottish “justice” back then than the rest of us did.