The quality of mercy

It's not difficult to make the case for the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. There is plenty of evidence that his conviction as it stands is unsafe -- al-Megrahi appears to have been fitted up. Private Eye has been saying this for years, and so have relatives of some of the UK victims. In the normal course you'd be content to wait for the evidence against the conviction to be tested on appeal in court. But al-Megrahi has terminal prostate cancer, and may well be dead before the appeal process is through, so there's at least a makeable case for releasing him on compassionate grounds. Which is what the Scottish Justice Minister, Kenneth McAskill, has chosen to do.

But if the decision to free al-Megrahi is defensible, how come everyone involved looks so bad?

* McAskill erred badly in meeting al-Megrahi a few weeks before announcing his release, which inevitably creates the impression that some kind of a deal was struck.

* McAskill's boss, Scotttish First Minister Alex Salmond, has been unable to resist the temptation to indulge in his usual bluster and grandstanding.

* As the furore has grown, the UK government has cravenly hidden behind the legal nicety that the decision is "Scotland's alone", ignoring the fact that (a) the UK concluded a prisoner exchange treaty with Libya early this year -- and al-Megrahi is/was the only Libyan in UK custody; (b) Gordon Brown discussed the issue with Muammar Ghadafi some months ago, and (c) Lord Mandelson appears to number a prominent Libyan or two among the slightly dubious characters he habitually meets on other people's yachts.

* The Libyan government, and al-Megrahi himself, seem to have reneged on an apparent undertaking to keep his return to Tripoli as low key as possible. Even if al-Megrahi were completely innocent -- which is very unlikely -- this would be insensitive at best and contemptuous at worst.

However, the dubious honour of exhibiting the worst behaviour of all in this sorry saga has surely gone to the Americans. The level of government and public outrage over McAskill's decision is nauseating, considering the Americans' own record. Less than a year before the Lockerbie atrocity, a US warship (the USS Vincennes) shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Persian Gulf, with the loss of more than 200 lives. No-one has ever been punished in any way for this. Just last week, even as the screaming about al-Megrahi was reaching a fever pitch, the US released several members of an Iraqi terrorist group that kidnapped five British citizens in Iraq a few years ago. Supposedly the group has repented of its past misdeeds. However, none of the hostages has ever been found, and four of them are presumed dead. The release ends any hopes of bringing these people to justice.

The repugnant John Bolton was all over the TV news last night, fulminating about al-Megrahi's release. He noted that al-Megrahi had served 14 days in jail for each of the Lockerbie victims. Hell, Bolton has all sorts of buddies who are responsible for much higher body counts than al-Megrahi stood accused of, and none of them has done any jail time at all. As one irate Scottish blogger puts it, "stuff some more freedom fries in yer yap and gie's peace".