Released in 2009 with "3 months" to live Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi dies in Libya
It is being reported from Libya that the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 has died. Al-Megrahi was released by the Scottish Government in August 2009 on compassionate grounds due to terminal cancer. The prognosis was that he had three months to live
Convicted by a Scottish Court in the Netherlands in 2001 with an Appeal dismissed in 2002
The trial and conviction of Al-Megrahi made legal history. A special court sitting in the Netherlands under Scottish Law was convened. There was no jury but a panel of judges. Al-Megrahi was convicted but his co-defendant acquitted. The Appeal a year later also made history as it was televised. The result of the Appeal was that the conviction was upheld. His conviction has generated controversy. Obviously the starting point is that, in the absence of a successful appeal, his conviction stands. That being said it always was a "strange" case.
Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission Report: - worth a read
Al-Megrahi's death will generate a lot of comment, retrospection and insistence that this is a convicted bomber responsible for the worst terrorist atrocity in United Kingdom history. It is not the role of Judicial Cat to offer an opinion on the guilt or innocence of someone convicted by a competent court; especially when that conviction has never been quashed on Appeal. That being said more and more evidence of "dodgy" dealings has emerged between Libya and the UK following the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. Judicial Cat recommends reading the report of the SCCRC. It is not "light" reading; however it is interesting reading!
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