An open

letter to

Kenny MacAskill

Jim Swire

I could not agree more with Judith Jaafar's telling comments (24 May). Show some independence now, if that's really what you are fighting for. Our proud history must not be blighted by allowing this case to remain unresolved.
     You used the provision in our law for compassion for Megrahi, you know I applauded that: and the thanks you got? Curses from the US and Westminster, yet you started a process you cannot now stop. Review of the case could only help defuse the criticism of your brave decision in 2009.
     Never mind what threats Cameron and the US may be dripping into your ears, like the Hamlet vial of poison.
     Maybe US firms say they will only come here if we uphold the sanctity of the 'Libya did it' myth, but inactivity is now enraging the elite and the thinkers in our own country. Thatcher may have taught us to put monetary gain above all else, but she was English. Some of us still believe that truth and justice should be the bedrocks of our Scottish society.
     Coming clean might mean the loss of our current lord advocate who told me only in February that he didn't know why the Heathrow information was hidden from the Megrahi trial. A simple inquiry to the Dumfries and Galloway chief constable Patrick Shearer soon produced an admirably frank answer to the lord advocate: Dumfries and Galloway knew of the break-in (described by Shearer as 'the Heathrow insecurity' incidentally) from January 1989 and suppressed it even from the Crown Office till 1999 and then it was still suppressed and kept from the defence and the court.
     The police were the agents of the Crown Office, and both entities were Scottish, 'Crown' or no 'Crown'.
     Then the Crown Office actually dared to presume to know that the information wouldn't have made any difference to the court's verdict. That is the attitude of a cornered suspect who will take any measure, adopt any policy to try to save his life.
     Does the SNP really wish to continue to associate with such attitudes? We are not going away. We look to you for leadership with honesty. Go for it, go for it now, before this descends into bitter legal action.
     There is right and there is wrong, and many believe we have gone terribly wrong over this case, and only we in Scotland can put it right.
     This also goes to Alex Salmond and Bob Black, together with the editor of the Scottish Review.

Dr Jim Swire is a member of the Justice for Megrahi Committee. He is the father of Flora, who died in the Lockerbie disaster