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Undeserved compassion
by Asa Butcher
2009-08-21 07:56:22 |
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As I excitedly began opening my birthday presents on the morning of my tenth birthday I clearly remember BBC Breakfast News being on in the background with live pictures being broadcast from a small Scottish town called Lockerbie that had been devastated by the falling burning debris from an aeroplane that had exploded overhead. The TV didn't stay on for long that day but the images of destruction have remained etched in my memory to this day and the shocking news of its architect's release have brought them flooding back.
Libyan Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was the man found guilty of murdering all 243 passengers and 16 crew members of Pan Am Flight 103 and, consequently, eleven people in Lockerbie as the wreckage fell to the ground. 270 people murdered just like that; families, a newlywed couple, students, children and more, each of whom was just in the wrong place at the wrong time are gone forever and the one man found responsible is being released on compassionate grounds.
Mr al-Megrahi's doctor states that his patient is suffering from an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer that is no longer responding to treatment meaning he only has approximately three months left to live, well I don't want to sound too malicious but good. Mr al-Megrahi knows the end is coming just as many of the passengers did as the plane plummeted to earth, so there perhaps the victim's families can take something from this cosmic justice although I doubt it.
It took 11 years, four months and 13 days for Mr al-Megrahi to be brought to trial before being found guilty on January 31 2001. He was released on August 20 2009, which means he served a total of 8 years, 6 months and 20 days for his crime equating to a mere 12 days per victim. 12 days for a life… if that is the going rate for killing somebody then I guess we shouldn't have any worries about prisons becoming over-crowded in Scotland in the future.
Some have argued that we shouldn't descend to his level of inhumanity, we should maintain the moral high ground and show compassion to a dying man, but I think he has been shown compassion, humanity and morality by being jailed instead of being lynched, executed and otherwise been treated to some of the punishments currently in circulation across our planet. Mr al-Megrahi should be thankful he was imprisoned in Scotland and not the USA where 189 of the victims were from because he would have surely been introduced to Death Row by now.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said that compassion and mercy were about "upholding the beliefs we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people, no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated." I thought our beliefs also hold that those who commit murder and other atrocities are punished for their crimes - how is he remaining true to the Scottish or any justice system by allowing this man's release? Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he should serve at least 20 years before being eligible for parole, but I don't recall any clauses and conditions being added to his sentence.
How can anybody request compassion and understanding after murdering so many innocent people? How can they have the gall to request a return to their native country to spend their final days with their family? I just don't get it. Is this some form of twisted irony that is being practiced by lawyers and doctors today? Who will be released from prison next? Perhaps Ian Brady, Peter Sutcliffe or Dennis Nilsen could do with a dose of compassion from the British Justice System, but now I am just being silly… or am I?
Lockerbie justice law |
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