Inquiry must look at Justice Secretary's visit to Greenock prison (Midlothian Liberal Democrats)

Midlothian Liberal Democrats <laird.ross@btinternet.com>

Inquiry must look at Justice Secretary's visit to Greenock prison

September 30, 2009 2:42 PM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

Commenting ahead of today's (Tuesday's) Justice Committee meeting where MSPs will set out the remit of an inquiry into the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson and Committee member Robert Brown MSP said:

"Much of the process involved in the Justice Secretary reaching his decision to release Mr Al-Megrahi remains shrouded in mystery.

"This inquiry must focus on getting answers to the key issues surrounding this decision.

"Central to that is Kenny MacAskill's controversial and inappropriate visit to Mr Megrahi's prison cell in Greenock, which was followed by the abandonment of the appeal.

"The consequence has been that relatives have been deprived of the opportunity to see the evidence, identified by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, properly tested and examined. We must know if there are ways in which this can now be done.

"This information is highly sensitive and cannot simply be dumped into the public domain with no way of testing it."