Official Report 517KB pdf
10:04
The next item on our agenda is consideration of continued petitions. All the petitions included in this agenda item have been carried over from the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee of session 6. We will start with three petitions that were referred to the Criminal Justice Committee in the previous parliamentary session.
Petition PE1370, which was lodged in 2010 by the Justice for Megrahi campaign group, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 Kamp van Zeist conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988.
The committee sought the views of the Scottish Government on all petitions that were carried over from session 6 in order to inform its consideration. The Scottish Government’s response is included in the papers along with a response from the petitioners. In that response, the Scottish Government states that it is not clear what the scope of any inquiry into Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction could be. The Government considers that the mechanism for considering the safety of a conviction is via the appeal court.
The petitioners’ submission argues that the petition should be kept open, arguing that the Justice for Megrahi campaign has consistently emphasised the importance of the Scottish Parliament keeping the petition on the table until all legal action is completed. It argues against closing the petition, given that what it considers to be possibly relevant fresh material might be about to emerge in a public forum in America. The petitioners state that they value the Scottish Parliament’s continuing scrutiny and political oversight.
In session 6, the Criminal Justice Committee considered the petition on 26 January 2022. It agreed to keep the petition open, pending progress in respect of an appeal by Mr al-Megrahi’s family. I invite members who have comments or suggestions for further actions to make them known.
I wonder whether the committee would consider referring the petition to the current Criminal Justice Committee for further consideration, which would be in line with what was agreed to in session 6.
Are members content with that approach?
Would it be okay to write to Mr al-Megrahi’s family to request an update on where we are with the appeal?
I would be content for clerks to write to Mr al-Megrahi’s family to seek that update. We will also write to the petitioner. Are members content with that?
Members indicated agreement.