Lockerbie row rumbles on

Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi never travels without his female bodyguards

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi is the man some people think was responsible for carrying out the bomb attack on Pan Am 103 that crashed into Lockerbie killing a total of 270 people.

His conviction and his subsequent release on compassionate grounds has been the subject of a great deal of controversy.

Some people say he was innocent of the crime and should never have been imprisoned some say the least he deserved was to die in jail.

When he was diagnosed as being terminally ill with prostate cancer a decision was made to allow him to go back to his Libyan homeland for the last few days of his life. This took place in August last year.

The nub of the issue in his release was that he was only expected to live for a further three months and allowing him home was the humane thing to do.

Ten months later he is still alive and MSP George Foulkes wants to see the monthly medical reports on Al-Megrahi’s condition that are logged with East Renfrewshire Council.

Clearly the information is covered by the Data Protection Act and as medical data would also be considered to be ‘sensitive’.

Mr Foulkes said there was a clear public interest in the matter becoming public knowledge but because the data was subject to schedule 3 there were only two possible ways the information could be released.

Firstly if Mr Al-Megrahi gave his explicit consent to the information being released. He was contacted and didn’t give permission.

The second exception was if the information had already been made public by the deliberate actions of the data subject.

The Commissioner made checks to see how much of the medical data about Al-Megrahi he himself had made public and found media reports with generic information that his condition was getting better or worse. But there was no specific information in the reports.

So, the reports will remain secret. However, I’d be interested to know if people think making the same application after Mr Al-Megrahi dies might be successful.

Mr Foulkes is reported as saying: “Foulkes said: “I am very disappointed that the freedom of information laws within Scotland don’t allow the public access to this information.

“It is clear that Megrahi, through his lawyer, has vetoed it. This is matter of not just national interest but also international interest. There are relatives of Americans who died who are concerned about it.”

The decision [link] has caused some controversy in Scotland. In February, Bill Aitken, justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “It is almost bizarre to suggest that the biggest mass murderer in Scottish history should be just like any other client. He is not. The public have a right to know what is going on.”