Alternative take: Dr Jim Swire, father of Lockerbie victim Flora Swire

Published on Thursday 13 March 2008 21:06

As the Lockerbie case progressed, the prosecution found itself in possession in 1996 of material that Mr (David] Miliband now claims cannot be divulged to the defence.

This occurred originally, it is said, because at the time, Scotland's Lord Advocate was ex officio a member of the UK government.

Mr Miliband has now taken out Public Interest Immunity certificates (PIIs) to "protect" the documents from release to either the defence or the public.

Since a basic tenet of Scottish criminal law is "equality of arms" between the defence and prosecution in a criminal case, it is hard to see how anyone can contend in the present circumstances that the second appeal could be considered fair. Especially since the SCCRC (review commission] seemed to be including the contents of these documents (which they had also been shown) in their reasons for referring the case back.

PII certificates carry as their justification and title the interests of "the public". What may be at stake here, unless a solution is found in the High Court, is the freedom of the Scottish criminal system to be, and to be seen to be, independent of political control from Whitehall.

If that absolute independence of Scottish law were not to be decisively established, and soon, it would be a black day indeed for the Scottish public, which, presumably, Mr Miliband also claims to serve.