"Judges at a Scottish court
ruled Friday that relatives of people killed in the 1988 bombing of a
Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland cannot launch an appeal on behalf of
the only man convicted of the attack. In an unusual case, relatives sought to appeal on behalf of the late
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer. Some of the victims' families believe al-Megrahi was not responsible
for the bomb that exploded aboard a New York-bound Boeing 747 in 1988,
killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. Many of the
victims were American college students flying home for Christmas. Usually only a convict's executors or family can mount a posthumous
appeal. Judges in Edinburgh at Scotland's Appeal Court ruled that the
law does not "allow victims or relatives of victims to be direct
participants in criminal proceedings." Al-Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and released from
prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with
cancer. He died in Libya in 2012, still protesting his innocence. Aamer Anwar, a lawyer for the victims' relatives and al-Megrahi's family, said he would continue the legal battle."
http://www.thewhig.com/2015/07/03/court-rejects-bid-by-lockerbie-victims-families-to-appeal-on-behalf-of-convicted-bomb
Is The Age of Progressive Prosecutors Over?
22 hours ago