The Lockerbie Aircraft Bombing Case and the Final Appeal
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00220183211000568 |
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Comment |
Comment
The Lockerbie Aircraft Bombing
Case and the Final Appeal
Robert Shiels
Solicitor in Scotland, UK
Abstract
The only person against whom a charge of murder was proved in regard to the Lockerbie
bombing case in 1988 had an appeal against conviction refused. A subsequent referral of the
case back for further consideration by appellate judges was abandoned by the appellant. He
was released on the statutory ground of compassion due to his imminent death. The appeal
was revived after further investigation and fresh evidence and referred to the criminal appeal
court for Scotland.
Keywords
Miscarriage of justice, terrorism, Lockerbie bombing, unreasonable verdict, public interest
certificates, non-disclosure
Introduction
The case law arising from the criminal trial about the Lockerbie disaster continues to accumulate.
1
The
criminal proceedings in Scotland have a protracted history and modern case law is required to introduce
that in order to, as it were, set the scene.
2
Many previous narratives and analyses of the case were very
much of their time and have been overtaken by events.
3
The most recent driving force in law for
continuing to review the Lockerbie case is a reference to the appellate jurisdiction of the High Court
of Justiciary made by the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (hereafter ‘the SCCRC’).
4
The
Corresponding author:
Robert Shiels, Solicitor in Scotland, SSC Library, Parliament House, Edinburgh EH1 1RF, UK.
E-mail: robertshiels@hotmail.com
1. See inter alia Robert Shiels, ‘The Legal History of the Lockerbie Aircraft Bombing Case and a Reference for Another Appeal’
(2020) 84(6) JCL 615–21.
2. Al Megrahi v HM Advocate, [2020] HCJAC 39, [8]; 2020 GWD 33-4276; [2020] 8 WLUK 302 (26 August 2020).
3. Eg, John P Grant and Rupert E Dickinson, ‘The Lockerbie Stalemate: Is an International Criminal Court the Answer’ (1996) Jur
Rev 250–62 for prior to the trial; and, David M Walker, A Legal History of Scotland: Volume VII: The Twentieth Century
(Butterworths/Lexis Nexis, Edinburgh 2004) 768–73 for what was then the state of legally qualified public knowledge in 2003
of events to that point.
4. The statutory powers associated with the SCCRC are in the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (c 46) (‘the 1995 Act’), ss
194A-194ZL.
The Journal of Criminal Law
2021, Vol. 85(4) 302–310
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/00220183211000568
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