Freeing the Lockerbie Bomber?

Back when I worked at Scotland on Sunday I was never the Lockerbie Guy. Nor was I even the Lockerbie Guy’s Assistant. For years every paper needed a Lockerbie specialist, not least because having one ensured that the rest of us didn’t have to follow the tortuously complicated story any more closely than the readers. Which is to say, I don’t know the extent of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi’s involvement, though clearly even if he was involved he wasn’t the fellow who ordered or thought of the mission.

Still, the speculation that he might be released on compassionate grounds – he has been diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer – has provoked a furious reaction from some of the usual suspects. Con Coughlin, for instance, considers his potential release a “humiliating episode” and wonders if Megrahi, far from dying, might “suddenly make a miraculous recovery the moment he sets foot back in Libya”.