Lockerbie release - Mercy is not a sign of weakness

SCOTTISH Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday decided to release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a 57-year-old Libyan national and former intelligence agent who was sentenced to a 27-year term in 2001 for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, in which 270 people, the majority of them Americans, died.

The Libyan is terminally ill.

His release had been trenchantly opposed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. No doubt Mrs Clinton speaks with great conviction, and for a great many Americans, but whether she or her fellow Americans accept it or not every pronouncement America makes on these matters is tainted by that superpower’s recent and appalling record of human rights abuses at Guantanamo.

Thankfully, President Obama, when he was elected, moved quickly to remove that terrible stain from his country’s character.

Virtually every chapter of history shows that inhuman treatment of prisoners does little to defeat an enemy. Rather, it deepens divisions and hatreds and makes conflict resolution all the more difficult.

Guantanamo, Long Kesh and Robben Island all had, as far as their administrators were concerned, very necessary functions but that does not mean they did not contribute to deepening the resolve of at least of some of those imprisoned.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was convicted of the most terrible crime and were he not terminally ill there would be no possible argument for his release.

He represented a State which for decades felt free to interfere in the affairs of democracies and armed terrorist groups who resorted to the most terrible violence without compunction.

In our instance al-Megrahi’s paymasters took this liberty in 1973 when the Claudia was arrested off Waterford carrying five tonnes of Libyan arms and ammunition. It is believed that three similar shipments reached the IRA during that period.

This arms smuggling had a central part to play in the 3,000-plus deaths of the Troubles so we should not be any doubt about the capacity of Libya to involve itself in the deaths of innocent civilians outside its borders.

Those Troubles ended, hopefully, with the Good Friday Agreement. One of the most difficult and challenging provisions in that Agreement dealt with the early release of prisoners convicted of terrorism.

Many of those men had blood on their hands and for very many people, especially relatives of their victims, their release was a bitter pill to swallow. Time has shown that the vast majority of these men, from whichever side, have returned to normal lives because the cause of the conflict that dominated their lives has largely been removed.

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi too has blood on his hands but it is difficult to understand what is to be gained – other than revenge – by keeping a dying man behind bars. Equally, it would be unwise for anyone, American or Libyan, to confuse mercy with weakness. Surely mercy will do more to build bridges than revenge. If not we are all living in a world as dark and dismal as Guantanamo was not so long ago.