I am unable to come to a view that it was right, or wrong, that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, was today released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds and permitted to return to his homeland to die with his family. The victims of the bombing were not allowed to do the same.
I never was convinced that the trial resulted in anything other than a dangerous conviction.
For all that, I’m glad that the Scottish Government found it possible to allow the Grace of compassion and mercy finally to guide its action:
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;”–Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice
When my own time comes, I hope to have thoughts of mercy and of gentleness on my conscience rather than those of anger and the desire for revenge.
So, on balance, I’m glad we did that.
