A commentary on the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the murder of 270 people in the Pan Am 103 disaster.
Sunday 4 October 2015
Colin Boyd resigns as Lord Advocate
Thursday 5 April 2012
Megrahi prosecutor to become Scottish judge
Wednesday 26 March 2014
One of the most disgraceful episodes in the Crown Office’s recent history
Saturday 1 January 2022
Divergent views on Colin Boyd as Lord Advocate
[The following are excerpts from a report published today in The Herald:]
Jack McConnell tactlessly told his elected colleagues in the Scottish cabinet that he valued the advice of an unelected minister more than theirs.
The then Labour First Minister somewhat ungraciously rated the input from the Lord Advocate, Lord Boyd, above that of his fellow politicians.
The admission came at the Scottish cabinet of October 4, 2006, when Lord Boyd announced he was standing down after six years in post as “the longest serving Lord Advocate for more than a century”.
He said that the trial of the Lockerbie bombing suspects in 2000 and 2001 at the special court in the Netherlands had been a major achievement for the Scottish justice system.
Lord Boyd led the prosecution of the two Libyans accused of the 1988 atrocity. (...)
Mr McConnelll said it was “impossible to overstate the importance” of Lord Boyd’s role in the Lockerbie trial and conviction, and also saluted his court reforms.
“There was no one whose judgment as a Cabinet colleague he had valued more.”
[RB: Lockerbie campaigners did not share Jack McConnell's views about Colin Boyd. Here are some comments published on the occasion of his resignation:]
"Colin Boyd tried to balance what was known to his prosecution team of the famous ‘CIA telegrams’ in the court at Zeist, in the knowledge that the ‘star’ prosecution witness (Giaca) was also a worthless CIA quisling. His struggles to meet his clear duty to truth and justice and fair dealing with the court and the defence, made a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look cool and sagacious. Meantime his predecessor in office had made the wise choice of lolloping off to the safety of a secure burrow in the nick of time." Dr Jim Swire
"I believe that history will view Colin Boyd’s reign as Lord Advocate as a shameful period where the independence of the Lord Advocate was sacrificed to the will of his political masters.
"Two cases dominated his tenure – the Lockerbie Bombing and the Shirley McKie case. In both cases he stands accused of weakness and vacillation in the face of political pressure and a complete failure to act as, ‘the watchdog for justice’ – the role assigned to him by Lord McCluskey.
"His dramatic overnight resignation in October 2006 has been seen by some as the captain jumping ship to save his skin. I hope that this accusation will be thoroughly tested during the planned judicial enquiry into my daughter’s case and in any future enquiry into the Lockerbie disaster." Iain A J McKie
[RB: Further, largely critical, accounts of Colin Boyd's performance in the Lockerbie case can be found here, here, and here.]
Monday 26 March 2012
Former Lord Advocate ... seriously misled the Megrahi Court claims book author
The claim, contained in the book Megrahi – You are my Jury, relates to the QC’s intervention in a matter involving secret CIA cables that contained details of discussions between the US agency and a Libyan ‘supergrass’ named Majid Giaka.
Wednesday 10 August 2011
Lord Boyd hits back at Lockerbie allegations
A former Lord Advocate yesterday broke his silence to hit back at campaigners who claim that the Libyan bomber was wrongly convicted.
In a powerful statement to The Times, Lord Boyd of Duncansby, who was in charge of Scotland’s prosecution service when Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi came to trial, said that allegations that the Crown Office had influenced the judges were “ludicrous”.
He added that Professor Robert Black, QC, who told an Edinburgh Fringe audience on Monday night that the judges had reached a guilty verdict contrary to the evidence because they were “consciously or unconsciously” under pressure from him to do so, was “irresponsible” and had cast “a slur on the reputation of senior and experienced judges”.
He added: “Al-Megrahi was properly convicted in this case and that conviction was upheld on appeal. He will die convicted of the worst mass murder ever carried out in British history, and deservedly so.” (...)
In the course of it, Professor Black said that the three trial judges, Lord Sutherland, Lord Coulsfield and Lord Maclean, had reached a verdict contrary to the evidence because they had been influenced by the power of the Lord Advocate, who was not only in charge of the prosecution but was also responsible for the appointment of Scottish judges.
Lord Boyd, who has not spoken publicly about such allegations before, said: “It’s a frankly pretty ludicrous allegation — a slur on the reputation of judges who are all very senior and experienced . . . I had been in office for all of three months when the trial took place, so I could not possibly have been responsible for their appointment. Had I been, there is no question of my having a hand in influencing them. This is not the culture of the Scottish judiciary. I utterly reject the suggestion.”
He was entirely satisfied that the conviction of al-Megrahi had been safe. “Every Lord Advocate from Peter Fraser to Elish Angiolini has examined the evidence at one time or another — six in total,” he said. “All were satisfied that there was either sufficient credible evidence to prosecute or, in my case, and Elish’s, that the conviction on that evidence was sound. Not one of us would have prosecuted or defended the conviction if we considered that there was any doubt . . . The process was robust and the conviction sound.”
Lord Boyd said that, as Solicitor General, he had been in charge of the preparation of the Crown case, and was entirely satisfied with its strength.
[Lord Boyd in his comments does not mention that one of the six grounds upon which, after a three-year investigation, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission found that Megrahi's conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice, was that, on the evidence led at Camp Zeist, no reasonable court could have reached the conclusion that Megrahi was the purchaser on Malta of the clothes that surrounded the bomb. Without that finding in fact, Megrahi could not have been convicted.]
Monday 11 April 2016
Elevation to peerage of Lord Advocate Colin Boyd
Wednesday 10 August 2011
Boyd stands on the burning deck…
Former Lord Advocate Colin Boyd, now a consultant at Dundas and Wilson, has publicly defended the “robust” conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and claimed that he, his predecessors and successors in office were all “satisfied that there was either sufficient credible evidence to prosecute or, in my case, and Elish’s, that the conviction on that evidence was sound.”
Boyd also rejected a suggestion published yesterday in The Times from Professor Robert Black QC that the three Camp Zeist trial judges may have “subconsciously” been unwilling to undermine the Lord Advocate’s judgement in bringing the Pan Am 103 case to trial, by returning not guilty or not proven verdicts.
“It’s a frankly pretty ludicrous allegation - a slur on the reputation of judges who are all very senior and experienced,” Boyd said.
“I had been in office for all of three months when the trial took place, so I could not possibly have been responsible for their appointment. Had I been, there is no question of my having a hand in influencing them. This is not the culture of the Scottish judiciary. I utterly reject the suggestion.”
“Every Lord Advocate from Peter Fraser to Elish Angiolini has examined the evidence at one time or another - six in total.
“All were satisfied that there was either sufficient credible evidence to prosecute or, in my case, and Elish’s, that the conviction on that evidence was sound. Not one of us would have prosecuted or defended the conviction if we considered that there was any doubt. The process was robust and the conviction sound.”
Professor Black’s suggestion was originally published some four years ago, and reiterated at a Q&A session following a public performance of David Benson’s one-man stage show [Lockerbie: Unfinished Business] at the Edinburgh Fringe on Monday afternoon. In 2007, Black said:
“It has been suggested to me, very often by Libyans, that political pressure was placed upon the judges. I don’t think for a minute that political pressure of that nature was placed on the judges.
“What happened, I think, was that it was internal politics in Scotland. Prosecutions in Scotland are brought by the Lord Advocate. Until just a few years ago, one of the other functions of the Lord Advocate in Scotland was that he appointed all Scottish judges.
“I think what influenced these judges was that they thought that if both of the Libyans accused are found not guilty, this will be the most fiendish embarrassment to the Lord Advocate."
In response to Boyd’s comments, Black said this morning that Boyd has overlooked that: “one of the six grounds upon which, after a three-year investigation, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission found that Megrahi's conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice, was that, on the evidence led at Camp Zeist, no reasonable court could have reached the conclusion that Megrahi was the purchaser on Malta of the clothes that surrounded the bomb.
“Without that finding in fact, Megrahi could not have been convicted,” he added.
Lord Maclean, one of the three trial judges who acted uniquely as jurors in this case for the first time in their careers, in his only interview on the subject given to The Firm’s Editor Steven Raeburn in 2005, gave a carefully qualified and hedged defence of the unanimous split verdicts in the case.
“I have no doubt, on the evidence we heard, that the judgments we made and the verdicts we reached were correct," he said.
In February this year the Scottish Parliament was urged to undertake an investigation into the legal advice provided by the former Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, in her role as legal adviser to the Scottish Government over the Pan Am 103 debacle.
The committee highlighted errors in her legal assessment of the Megrahi case, and challenged “the quality and accuracy of the advice and information being given to the Scottish Government by Scotland’s senior Law Officer.”
In June this year Lord [Peter] Fraser was challenged by Dr Jim Swire to explain his position after he told an Al Jazeera documentary film crew that he accepted a key witness in the Pan Am 103 trial had been bribed by Scottish Police.
The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee will consider whether an inquiry into the affair is to be constituted in the new Parliamentary session.
[The glorious aptness of The Firm's brilliant headline can be gauged by reading the dreadful poem from which it is taken.]