Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi

In the British press there has been quite a controversy about the last of The Great Train Robbers, Ronald Biggs. He is seriously ill and in the latter stages of his life. While he was a violent criminal and was guilty of the offences he was charged with. However it looked as though he was being detained as for years after he escaped from prison he cocked a snoot at the British authorities.

Having suffered several stokes and unable to communicate verbally, finally he was released on compassionate grounds. While there are some people that wanted to see him die in prison, it is a mark of a truly civilised society that we treat prisoners and wrong doers with dignity.

It does not always happen and the British Government has and does breach the United Nations deceleration on human rights far more often than we are prepared to admit. In Britain today there are people who are detained that have never been charged. This is the result of anti terrorist legislation, and breaches the European Convention of Human Rights that is supposed to integrate throughout or law and legal system.

Basically no one should ever be detained unless they are facing charges and due legal process. If there is enough evidence to detain someone then they should face a trial. I acknowledge that it is not a perfect system and every day there will be people who are found not guilty in courts up and down the country that have gotten away with something criminal. But they have faced due process and if the evidence was not strong enough to convict then it is right that they should go free.

To go off on a tangent, the flip side of that is there have been a shameful number of people who have been finally released after years of imprisonment having been discovered to have been not guilty. The real purporters of that offence though has been walking free and frequently able to commit more offences.

Then just yesterday, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds. While there are legitimate reasons to question the safety of the conviction, he was convicted of the bombing of the Pan Am flight 103 and as such is a convicted murderer. However, he is dyeing of cancer, and it is a true measure of a civilised society that the Scottish Government has been able to show compassion.

Now I know that in America many people feel his release is wrong and that he should have died in prison. However this is one of the major divides between our two nations, as the American Justice system is far more political then the British system and the penal system is much more about revenge than seeking real justice and more importantly rehabilitation of offenders. Therefore as an outside observer, the scandal of Guantanamo Bay was fully predictable because of the US judicial system.

While I could not see a British Guantanamo Bay happening as easily, I do not delude myself that this could not happen here in the United Kingdoms. In Northern Ireland there was detention without trial and many abuses of human rights. Yet when you strip away all the ideology and political rhetoric at the core of all terrorism is an abuse of human rights. Therefore any further injustice and abuse of human rights only perpetuates the terrorism.

Therefore showing compassion to Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi does more to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks than any war or military action ever could.