Justice for the 270

The allegation that members of the CIA considered assassinating Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi prior to his trial (your report, 5 July) comes as no great surprise and, given what we have witnessed recently regarding brash American attitudes to international relations, such as spying on the EU, it is, sadly, 
entirely believable.

We approach the 25th anniversary of Pan Am Flight 103’s tragic destruction over Scotland and yet still we don’t know for sure what happened or who was responsible overall. Those 270 deaths remain unexplained in the minds and hearts of many.

It is possible that our justice system may have convicted the wrong man. It is possible the evidence used in the trial should have been inadmissible and that geopolitical forces are, and always have been, at play to suppress truth and deny justice.

Had Megrahi not got sick and been encouraged to drop his appeal so he could fly home to be with his family then we might have got some answers in a court of law.

But we are where we are. No signs of Megrahi’s family re-instigating his appeal, no signs on a UN-led international inquiry, no signs of Holyrood holding 
a domestic inquiry into our own criminal justice system and no signs of the Justice for Megrahi group getting very far with the bizarre approach of asking the police to investigate themselves.

It is time for Scotland to forget protocol and somehow get Megrahi’s appeal restarted even without a living defendant.

Call it by the will of the people versus the Crown or just in the name of the public interest.

We can’t let Scotland’s biggest crime of recent times remain so blatantly unresolved.

David Flett

Stirling