Lockerbie bomber released

Life should mean life. On the other hand, if he was wrongly convicted and wrongly imprisoned that is a different argument.

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

... Oh, sorry, wrong villain

The conviction was always a little iffy, the main feeling seemed to be he was definitely guilty of *something* so probably best he goes down for it. Though that of course means the actual perpetrator may have gotten off scot free.

Matt - the Scottish Government cannot interfere with a finding of guilt. So they have to accept that the conviction is secure.

Ronnie Biggs - the bit of me you quoted was about him - did not kill 270 people.

If the Scots didn't want him there, then perhaps they should have sent him to the US.

He was found guilty by a court of law for the murder of 270 people. He has never shown any compassion for the families of the people whoe died and has now served roughly 10 days in jail for each of the people he was convicted of killing. Only way he should ever have been released was if his conviction was quashed.

[Spiderman]

There si a lot of controvery about this guy being involved, let alone in charge. Even some of the families of those killed have rejected him as being the guilty party i read recently.

So if its an unsafe conviction then perhaps an innocent man is being freed after a long time in prison for a crime he didnt commit.

At no point should his health be a factor in his release. I find it ironic that his term was life behind bars but now he is dying they are letting him out. Surely he should stay inside and be grateful that in a sense he is still getting away with a reduced term.
Some may argue that he might be innocent and so then it isnt fair yada yada ya OLLCKSBA! he was found guilty for a reason, what ever that reason may be.
I'm sure relatives of the victims wished they'd had some time to spend with thier loved ones before they tragically lost their lives, they werent spared any compassion so neither should this fool have been.

peace out.

Typical British justice in action, prisoner convicted of mass murder falls ill so gets a private plane to fly him home scot free. Well they do say its difficult to play the playstation when you're not feeling too hot.

Yep, I understand most of his conviction was based on the word of a shop keep who basicly said 'yes he looks kind of like the man I sold the stuff to', who was trying to recall something from 10 years earlier.

Though at the end of the day the bombing was probably a response to the shooting down of a civil airbus by the American navy, the inquest into that was also a bit of a farce.

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by leedsmatt7

At no point should his health be a factor in his release. I find it ironic that his term was life behind bars but now he is dying they are letting him out. Surely he should stay inside and be grateful that in a sense he is still getting away with a reduced term.
Some may argue that he might be innocent and so then it isnt fair yada yada ya OLLCKSBA! he was found guilty for a reason, what ever that reason may be.
I'm sure relatives of the victims wished they'd had some time to spend with thier loved ones before they tragically lost their lives, they werent spared any compassion so neither should this fool have been.

peace out.

Yeh but dude, so were the Guildford 4 and numerous other so called "terrorists" over the years.
Dont forget the police and security services are under great political pressure to secure a conviction to keep the public appeased that "someone" is paying for this crime. There was a lot of speculation the iranians had a hand in it cos as Grinch says it followed the shooting down of a civillian airliner.

Miscarrages of justice do happen and imho the bigger the public outrage the more chance that someone gets fingered for it, not always the right someone tho.

I'm not saying i think he was innocent btw, dont know enough about the case but i do know about people getting wrongly put away cos they are easy targets.

Originally Posted by Ed

Matt - the Scottish Government cannot interfere with a finding of guilt. So they have to accept that the conviction is secure.

Ronnie Biggs - the bit of me you quoted was about him - did not kill 270 people.

If the Scots didn't want him there, then perhaps they should have sent him to the US.

I do agree that guilt is guilt in that if a court finds it so then that is how it should be (otherwise you have various shades of guilt). So you've caught me being a little naughty there.

I'd be best suited sticking to the compassion argument. As stated by others, he showed no compassion yet we do to him. That is precisely how it should be. The Scottish Justice Minister said exactly that:

"Mr al-Megrahi did not show his victims any comfort or compassion. They were not allowed to return to the bosom of their families ... No compassion was shown by him to them, but that alone is not a reason for us to deny compassion to him and his family in his dying days. Our justice system demands that justice be imposed but compassion be available..."

We hold ourselves to a higher moral standard than to the morals of terrorists.

He now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power.

[Supervox]

At the risk of de-railing this thread somewhat, to those of you who have stated that life should mean life for a convicted terrorist & that he should be left to die in jail - do you also feel the same way about Nelson Mandela ?