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Libya: Lockerbie Bomber Has Been In Touch With Scottish Council 'Very Recently'

Lockerbie

Huffington Post UK   Dina Rickman First Posted: 22/08/11 18:54 Updated: 22/10/11 11:12

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The council monitoring the Lockerbie bomber have been in contact with him “very recently”, a spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK on Monday.

A representative for East Renfrewshire Council said that whilst they were monitoring Abdel Baset Ali Al-Megrahi to ensure he kept to the terms of his release, they were under “no obligation” to protect him.

“Up to this point, all of the contact we expected to have, we have had. We have received monthly medical reports. All of our contact is up to date, as of Friday," said the spokesman.

But he said the council was currently trying to get in contact with Al-Megrahi: “Up until Friday, I would have said all of the contact is entirely up to date. The position at the moment is because of the situation in the city we will be looking to make contact with him sooner than we’d expected to, and the reason for that is to make sure that we can continue to make the contact we’ve had over the last two years.”

The spokesperson added that any breaches would be referred back to the parole board and the Scottish justice department, but stressed he would need permission to leave Libya.

“Our role is, because he’s been released on compassionate grounds, he’s released under certain conditions. We need to monitor him under those conditions, things like where he lives."

Scottish lawyer Derek Livingston said the change in government did not matter in “legal terms” but the Libyan transitional council may attempt to send Al-Megrahi back: “It doesn’t matter one iota that there’s been a change of government from a legal point of view. It might matter from a political perspective. In theory the Libyans could try and send him back.”

A Scottish Government Spokesperson did not comment on calls from an MP to send Al-Megrahi back to Britain, only saying: "Al-Megrahi was sent back to Libya because he is dying of terminal cancer, he is being monitored by East Renfrewshire Council according to the terms of his release licence which he has not breached."

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The council monitoring the Lockerbie bomber have been in contact with him “very recently”, a spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK on Monday. A representative for East Renfrewshire Council s...
The council monitoring the Lockerbie bomber have been in contact with him “very recently”, a spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK on Monday. A representative for East Renfrewshire Council s...
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botzarelli
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16:34 on 23/08/2011
I wonder whether he might not be tempted to apply for asylum...
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Tim Haselden
An Enemy of Rupert Murdoch, since 1984.
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10:33 on 23/08/2011
He wants to know, whether his cell is still available.
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Blockem1
When will our politicians start putting policies
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08:42 on 23/08/2011
I think we will find that it was Blair and Brown that did a deal and used the Scottish Parliament to execute it to secure BP's and others oil rights , wether we like it or not it will have been argued by them, that it was in GB's interest to do this evil trade and as for the families who had lost their loved ones had in their view had been well compensated.......... its just another horrible example of the double standards and twisting of the truth that our politicians believe they can get away with.
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merrymay
78 Fans
01:26 on 23/08/2011
This whole Arab spring and Libya/Scot stuff say to me the big multis and banks are going to steal all the natural resources the way they did in South Africa...the whole creation seems to run downhill into their coffers now.
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gregoryenelson
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18:14 on 22/08/2011
I had heard that Megrahi's conviction was not reliable, that it was "unsafe", and that his appeal was on its way to the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court. It was at that time that the Scottish authorities released him on 'compassionate' grounds. That release meant that the court system avoided having to hear Megrahi's appeal.
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MolliBlum
1658 Fans
19:25 on 22/08/2011
Yes, you are correctly informed. The appeal was referred to the High Court by the SCCRC (Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission), an independent public body, which does its homework so very thoroughly that almost every case succeeds. At present, the SCCRC is barred from publishing the grounds for that appeal (though some general information did filter through to the media at the time) but a change in legislation is scheduled for September which should, hopefully, lift that ban.
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