European Press Review

Release of Megrahi Has Let Down Lockerbie Victims, Says Financial Times

By Lucy Jones

The Aug. 20 release on compassionate grounds of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, prompted outrage and puzzlement in the British press.

The argument by Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that while Megrahi may have shown Scotland no mercy, that did not free Scotland of its obligation to show some mercy to him, was a “brave and civilizing” one, said The Guardian on Aug. 25. “Yet the seeming purity of the appeal could not dispel the feeling that something was not quite right about the decision that had been made,” it added.

“The possibility that there might have been a miscarriage of justice—with doubt cast on the reliability of the prosecution’s chief witness—may have weighed with Mr. MacAskill,” the newspaper continued, “but it only makes things worse for the relatives, since Megrahi’s release has been accompanied by the terminating of his outstanding appeals. He is now free to put a one-sided story to the court of Libyan public opinion, instead of having his case tested in a Scottish court. That can only inhibit the prospects of the truth coming out.”

“MacAskill’s remarks on Megrahi’s guilt, which on first reading sounded unequivocal, were freighted with ambiguity,” editorialized the London Times of Aug. 21. “After accepting the conviction and the 27-year sentence, Mr. MacAskill then suggested, without quite specifying what he meant, that any wider issues were a matter for higher authorities. It is hard not to suppose that he intended at least to leave a whisper of suspicion about the safety of Megrahi’s conviction,” it added. “All prisoners are, as he said, indeed eligible to be considered for compassionate release. But not all prisoners are thereby entitled to have that request granted and Megrahi’s crime is such that he ought to have served out the full term of his life in prison,” the newspaper argued.

“A system of justice is more ennobled by ensuring justice than by displaying clemency,” weighed in commentator (and former British Conservative party cabinet member) Michael Portillo in The Sunday Times of Aug. 23. “It commands greater confidence when courts rather than politicians decide who will be let go,” he added.

“Why was it so much more important to Mr. MacAskill to show compassion to Megrahi than to the relatives of the people he murdered?” asked The Daily Telegraph on Aug. 22. “The difficulty in answering that question is one reason why so many people now wonder about the real reason that Megrahi is now a free man.

“Megrahi’s release has been accompanied by the terminating of his outstanding appeals.”

“We may never know the identity of all of those involved in plotting the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103,” it acknowledged. “But we can and should know the full truth about why the only individual who was ever brought to justice for that terrible crime has been freed. Our government must be completely transparent about its role in the episode. Anything less will be a betrayal of the standards of justice, decency and humanity that ministers claim to uphold.”

“The families of the 270 Lockerbie victims have been let down,” editorialized The Financial Times on Aug. 21. “The full story of what happened still needs investigation. Justice must be seen to be done. That is still not the case,” it concluded.

Britain’s SAS Training Libyan Troops, Reports U.K.’s Daily Telegraph

For the past six months Britain’s elite troops, the Special Air Services (SAS), have been schooling soldiers working for Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Britain’s Daily Telegraph revealed on Sept. 11. For years, it added, Libya provided Republican terrorists in Northern Ireland with the Semtex explosive, machine-guns and anti-aircraft missiles used against British troops.

“Sources within the SAS have expressed distaste at the agreement, which they believe could be connected to the release of the Lockerbie bomber,” the newspaper reported.

The Ministry of Defense has refused to comment on special forces activities, but sources have admitted that SAS reserves have bolstered the team that has been training “Libyan infantry in basic skills,” the Telegraph said.

Poll Rigging Could Spell “Beginning Of the End” for Democratic Afghanistan, Says Deutsche Welle

Amid reports that Taliban fanatics chopped off fingers of at least two voters in Afghanistan’s Aug. 20 election and of low voter turnout in some parts of the country (with estimates that only 10 percent of voters cast ballots in parts of the south), some commentators questioned the merit of NATO’s continued presence in the country.

“As in Vietnam, there will have to be a battle in Washington and London between brave realists and fake patriots,” wrote Simon Jenkins in Britain’s Guardian of Aug. 21. “Once-gung-ho publications (such as The Times and Economist) are asking tough questions, even if they do not offer answers,” he noted. “Ministers are sounding ever more panic-stricken. Generals are forewarning of retreat by pleading for sympathy and resources.

“A bombastic crusade has mutated into a long, hard slog, and now into a state of despair,” he continued. “The daily ritual of soldiers’ deaths should be acceptable to a nation at war. But there comes a point in the rhetoric of heroism when the pointlessness of it all bursts the shackles of jingoism. Surely an election, the ultimate moment of political realism, is the time to stop mouthing insincerities and call a mistake a mistake,” Jenkins concluded.

According to Claus Christian Malzahn, writing in Germany’s Der Spiegel of Sept. 9: “The truth is, the fight against the Taliban only began in earnest this spring, following years of allowing the militant Islamists to run things in the provinces. The U.S. Army has been taking a stand in areas that it never controlled before and has been met with fierce resistance. It is actually supposed to be assisting the Afghan army in many places, but instead it is bearing the main brunt of attacks and has suffered a correspondingly high number of killed and wounded soldiers.”

On the election itself, the German radio station Deutsche Welle’s Kabul correspondent, Sabina Matthay, reported on Aug. 21 that observers viewed vote rigging as “systematic.”

“As always, these allegations are based on rumors and counter-rumors,” she noted. “However, the very fact that the electoral commission, tasked with guaranteeing a free and fair poll, sent out thousands of election documents to children ineligible to vote, highlights the lack of transparency and fairness, and further undermines any confidence in the government. Should these allegations be confirmed, it could spell the beginning of the end for a democratically-rooted Afghanistan,” she concluded.

Back in Britain, however, Janet Daley in The Daily Telegraph of Aug. 22 pointed out that the number of people who had turned out to vote (just under half the eligible voters) was about the same percentage of British voters who had voted in the last local elections, when “nobody was threatening to amputate their fingers if they voted.

“I am amazed by commentators on the Left who assume this patronizing, ex-colonial attitude, which declares whole countries, whole populations, to be incapable of self-government even in the face of this astoundingly moving evidence: the Afghan voters defied the threat of death and mutilation to participate in the electoral process,” Daley wrote.

“However minimal their influence may turn out to be on the actual political progress of their country, however ineffectual their individual votes may prove in a compromised, flawed election, they were prepared to risk their lives. Which of us, whose privileged democratic stability is so taken for granted as to be almost beneath our notice, should be able to dismiss their courage as futile and irrelevant?” she concluded.

French Woman Banned From Pool For Wearing Islamic Swimsuit

A 35-year-old French convert to Islam threatened legal action in August after she was evicted from a public pool for wearing a “burkini”—a veil, trouser and tunic covering that she said allowed her to swim while preserving her modesty, Britain’s Guardian reported on Aug. 12.

The case has reopened France’s bitter controversy about how Muslim women can dress, the newspaper noted.

Carole, who would not give her surname, bought the suit while on vacation in Dubai and wore it swimming with her children once at a local pool in Emerainville. The second time she wore it, she was banned.

Carole, who converted to Islam at age 17, said she would seek advice from anti-discrimination groups. The local authorities in Emerainville said the case had nothing to do with Islam, but regulations stated that garments bigger than standard swimsuits, including men’s shorts, could not be worn in pools for reasons of hygiene.

A parliamentary committee is currently considering whether to introduce a law to ban women in France from wearing full Islamic veils in public places, after a petition from 50 MPs calling for restrictions on veils with face coverings. In 2004, France banned standard headscarves and all conspicuous religious symbols from state schools.

Woman in Niqab Gives Evidence in Danish Courtroom

For the first time in Danish legal history, a woman wearing a niqab gave evidence in a courtroom, TV2 News in Denmark reported Sept. 4.

The woman was a witness during a High Court hearing and was wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf that covers the face, leaving only the eyes visible.

The woman produced her driver’s license as ID and then removed her face covering in front of a female judge to confirm her identity.

There are currently no set rules for what a witness can wear in a courtroom. It is at the discretion of the presiding judge to deem what is appropriate.

Lucy Jones is a free-lance journalist based in London.