Minister had no regrets about decision

Chief Scottish Political Correspondent

Monday 21 May 2012

KENNY MacAskill, as a man fond of proclaiming the Scots values of compassion and mercy, will not be celebrating the death of a cancer patient in Tripoli, even if that man remained convicted of the greatest mass murder in our history.

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ROBBIE DINWOODIE CHIEF SCOTTISH POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

But, as a politician who has had to live with the consequences of granting Megrahi compassionate release, facing the fury of US relatives of the Pan Am Flight 103 atrocity victims and then having to grit his teeth as the estimate of how long he would live proved hopelessly inaccurate, he must have had a private word of thanks with a "higher power" that Megrahi has succumbed to his condition.

The Justice Secretary can cut a contradictory figure. Blunt spoken, often using the language of the punter in the street, with a love of football, he was at Hampden supporting Hibs on Saturday and still plays five-a-sides at the age of 54.So the language he used in his announcement in August 2009 that he was granting Megrahi compassionate release caught observers by surprise, with its almost sermon-like intensity."Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs that we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people. No matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated."Most believe the tone was brought on by his awareness of the gravity of a decision that rested on his shoulders alone.But, as the three-month estimate of the time left to Megrahi became 12 months, two years and now pushing towards three years, Mr MacAskill showed no hint of regretting the decision.When I interviewed him ahead of last May's election, he was insistent the Megrahi decision was not damaging him with the voters, something about which he was proved right.But has the decision had a wider impact on his handling of the justice brief? As a lawyer, he has been quick to defend the Scots legal system, almost to the point of being in denial that the Camp Zeist trial could have got it wrong. He has invested so much of his personal energy in this decision, and the drive to create a single Scottish police force, that some question whether this has been at the expense of other issues.He adopted the wrong tone over the battles with the Supreme Court – referring to that body as "ambulance-chasers" and threatening to cut its funding was not one of his finer moments.And last week Holyrood's Justice Committee expressed frustration that too many reforms urged by the Law Commission had not been enacted. Maybe now Megrahi has departed, he will find more time for other issues.

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Minister had no regrets about decision

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