Sunday, August 30, 2009

The stink caused by Al Megrahi's release just won't go away

Some pressing questions about Al Megrahi's release:

1. Could they not have shown compassion by giving him the best palliative care possible whilst keeping him in jail? (He would probably get better healthcare than anything offered in Libya) Why does compassion mean giving a dying mass murderer his freedom? Surely, life imprisonment means losing the liberty to choose where you die as well as where you live (as Geoffrey Alderman has argued).
2. Was Al Megrahi's release motivated by Britain's oil interests? If this is indeed the case, the government has to fall. Any government that chooses to release a mass murderer in order to secure a business deal hasn't a shred of legitimacy. This has the potential to turn into a massive scandal.