Lockerbie bomber released

Well its pointless having a sentence such as life then. All cases i guess have to be judged individually to be truely fair. However if someone was guilty to killing hundreds of people then life should mean life. No parol, no get out of jail free card

[northwind]

True that, calling it life is just daft. If I've got it right he was sentenced effectively to 27 years, but he's served 10 of that.

is that correct he got 27years for been found guilty of killing 270 people? that doesnt seem all that much like justice. Surely He should have got 12years for every person he killed, obviously impossible to serve as he'd die before the end of his sentance but to get 1.2 months per person is discusting in its self. I can easily think of 10 people I'd kill if it meant I'd only do a years time in prison. Peter Ridsdale would be number 1

[northwind]

Ah, no, I was wrong- minimum sentence of 27 years.

Thing is, keeping someone in prison til they die is a bit pointless, and expensive. If you want to really **** someone up, keep them in prison for their entire adult life then release them when they're 80 into a world they don't recognise where they don't know a single person and they're totally institutionalised and unable to adapt to. Now that's proper mean.

[Messie]

Even ignoring the possibility of a wrongful conviction, he would not have been soley responsible for the bomb. There would have been many others involved, many of whom would've been more senior in the organisation. The whole affair is very complex and I think his release from jail and return to Libya should be seen very much as a one-off and not setting a precedent in Scotlan

Originally Posted by Messie

Even ignoring the possibility of a wrongful conviction, he would not have been soley responsible for the bomb. There would have been many others involved, many of whom would've been more senior in the organisation. The whole affair is very complex and I think his release from jail and return to Libya should be seen very much as a one-off and not setting a precedent in Scotlan

I see what you are saying and I agree there is a lot more too it than we will ever know but I do not see how the Justice Minister can possibly deny any other prisoner in Scotland suffering from a terminal illness the right to compassionate release now he has released the man convicted of the biggest mass murderer in UK history and indeed, the man convicted of the biggest single act of terrorism the world had seen until 9/11.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Milky Bar Kid

I do not see how the Justice Minister can possibly deny any other prisoner in Scotland suffering from a terminal illness the right to compassionate release now he has released the man convicted of the biggest mass murderer in UK history and indeed, the man convicted of the biggest single act of terrorism the world had seen until 9/11.

(Quick point, lockerbie wasn't the world's biggest single act of terrorism, the Iran theatre arson and Air India bombings were worse, so was the beirut barracks bombing.)

But yes- you're spot on, but the thing is, most claims for compassionate release are already met (something like 4 out of 5 in scotland), this isn't some new thing or a precedent.

Originally Posted by northwind

(Quick point, lockerbie wasn't the world's biggest single act of terrorism, the Iran theatre arson and Air India bombings were worse, so was the beirut barracks bombing.)

But yes- you're spot on, but the thing is, most claims for compassionate release are already met (something like 4 out of 5 in scotland), this isn't some new thing or a precedent.

Ok, maybe the biggest single act of terrorism the western world had seen until 9/11.

Where are you basing the above from, I have never heard of this?

[yorkie_chris]

Mental ayatollas torched a theatre just as the Shah was falling from power and the nutcase extremists rose. Apparently theatre is a symbol of western decadence and quite annoyed the fuzzy-wuzzies. 1978 I think.

[northwind]

329 people on Air India Flight 182, crashed into the sea just south of Ireland. Oh, and that was a western one, most of the victims were Canadian. 422 died in the Iranian theatre arson. About 300 in the Beirut barracks bombing.