The chief architect of the trial which convicted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi of the Lockerbie bombing has accused two of Scotland's most senior legal figures of treating the Libyan "shabbily" by delaying his appeal, and urged al-Megrahi's release after last week's disclosure he has prostate cancer.
Robert Black, professor emeritus in Scottish law at Edinburgh University, said that Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini and the Advocate General for Scotland, Neil Davidson, were responsible for delays in the appeal process.
Black was instrumental in setting up the Libyan's trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands eight years ago for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in December 1988, which claimed 270 lives. Al-Megrahi has always maintained he is innocent.
Black urged the authorities to use discretionary powers for compassionate release of inmates who have only three months to live. But the Scottish government insisted that it cannot make any decision without an application from al-Megrahi's solicitor, which has not been received.
Meanwhile, prison sources have told the Sunday Herald that a Libyan government delegation visited al-Megrahi in Greenock Jail on Thursday.
Black's comments will increase the pressure over the failure to set a date for al-Megrahi's appeal 17 months after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred his case to the Court of Appeal.
Black said: "Even if there were not overwhelming grounds for doubting the justifiability of the court's verdict, there are other reasons for pressing for his release from prison, given his recent diagnosis of cancer.
"The first of these reasons is compassion and humanity. There is a practice, though not an invariable one, within the Scottish Prison Service of releasing a prisoner who has only three months to live. None of us knows whether that stage has been reached in the progression of Mr Megrahi's illness.
"But is it really necessary for those in whose power the decision lies to wait until they are certain that point has arrived? This particular prisoner finds himself incarcerated in a foreign country whose culture is alien to him. His sense of isolation at this time and the psychological strain on him must be greater than what would be suffered by a Scottish prisoner in a Scottish jail. Would it not be both appropriate as well as merciful for this to be recognised by the Scottish authorities?"
Black also criticised the three years it took the SCCRC to refer al-Megrahi's case to the Court of Appeal as "appalling" when enough doubt had already been cast over the identification of al-Megrahi as the man who bought the suitcase in which the bomb was planted by a key trial witness, Maltese shopkeeper Toni Gauci.
Black said: "The delay in bringing Mr Megrahi's current appeal to the hearing stage has been appalling. Had a measure of urgency been shown, it is entirely conceivable that the appeal could have been over before now and the appellant back with his wife and children in his own country.
"If the SCCRC decided early in its deliberations that the case was going to have to be referred back on this ground, and it is difficult to believe that it did not, then delaying taking that step for three years is hard to justify."
Black criticised Angiolini and Davidson for acting on behalf of their own governments in a way that has resulted in problems for al-Megrahi's legal team in accessing trial productions, seeking to overturn previous appeal court decisions on the appeal's scope and, in Davidson's case, arguing the gorvenment's claim for public interest immunity for documents which had been in the Crown's hands for more than 12 years.
He added: "Mr Megrahi has been shabbily dealt with by the Scottish criminal justice system. The Scottish government has an opportunity now to treat him with compassion and dignity. I, for one, hope that it has the moral courage to seize it."
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 23, died in the attack, supported calls for al-Megrahi's release in a letter to The Herald published yesterday.
He wrote: "Does anyone suppose that they would feel any lasting benefit were Mr Megrahi to be forced to die in prison, far from his family? Would the enforcement of such a fate advantage those still grieving after 20 years? I don't believe it would, though many may clamour for it. The world will be watching whether we show magnanimity or vengeance."
A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokesman said: "The Crown has not caused any unnecessary delays in Megrahi's appeal against conviction."
