Justice – or compassion?

I doubt that there is anyone, who has access to any form of international communication, who is not aware of the release, earlier this week, of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi – the Libyan who, about nine years ago, was convicted of being responsible, with others, of having planted the bomb on Pan-Am Flight 103, that exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, on December 21st, 1988.

The reason given, by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, for the release of Mr Megrahi was ‘compassionate grounds due to a terminal and inoperable cancer’. This has not pleased a great number of people, especially among the families of the American passengers on the doomed flight. Calls have been made to boycott Scotland, and all Scottish products. The head of the USA’s FBI has openly, and in writing, accused Mr MacAskill of having rewarded a terrorist even ’though he has neither admitted to his part in the act of mass murder, nor disclosed the names and roles of others who were responsible.

There are a number of responses that one would wish to make. At a very basic human level, I honestly don’t know how I would feel – not so much about Mr Megrahi’s release, as about the tumultuous welcome that he received in Tripoli – if one of my own loved ones had been a victim of what was, to any sane and reasonable person, a dastardly and atrocious act. However, when I hear high-level officials from the USA Law Enforcement Agencies who, to the best of my knowledge, suffered no personal bereavement, making the sort of comment that this FBI boss is making, I cannot help but recall the way in which thousands of British police officers, soldiers, and civilians, were equally atrociously murdered by the IRA and its offshoots during what are still referred to, euphemistically, as “The Troubles” in N.Ireland – while the USA allowed open fund-raising to purchase the arms and ammunition that were being used. I also seem to recall that it was difficult to have certain suspects extradited from the USA – but I am open to correction on that score!

There also appears to be considerable doubt as to Mr Megrahi’s guilt! If he had been tried, in a Scottish Court, by a jury of ordinary men and women, it would seem that the prosecution would not have proved their case “beyond reasonable doubt”. The evidence, I understand, was purely circumstantial; there is, apparently, clear evidence that the one man who identified Mr Megrahi as the man who had purchased a particular item of clothing from his Maltese shop, was paid a substantial amount of cash – by the USA authorities – and is now living in Australia; the evidence against Syria is greater than the evidence agaist Libya – let alone Mr Megrahi as an individual.

However, the bottom line, for me, is this. The English bard, William Shakespeare, has his character Portia speak these words in The Merchant of Venice: “The quality of mercy is not strain’d; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest – it blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.” (Act 4, Scene 1).

And did not Jesus, in the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30ff), emphasise that mercy is neither deserved nor earned. It is an act of grace on the part of the one who dispenses it. How often did He dispense such mercy when He walked among human beings as one of us? (cf Matt.20:30-31; Mar.5:19 inter al). Paul's injunction in Rom.12:17ff may also be seen as highly relevant. And, of course, those of us who claim to have received the salvation that Jesus won on the cross at Calvary, are the recipients of God’s mercy (Eph.2:4ff).

I am so glad that I did not have the responsibility of Kenny MacAskill in this situation. I trust that Mr Megrahi, in the short time that he is expected to have in this world, will reflect upon the mercy that has been shown to him by a Scottish politician – but then, as he reads his Qur’an, that he will come to a realisation that Isa (Jesus) is, indeed, the Compassionate and All-merciful One, and that he will receive the salvation that He offers: the greatest mercy of all. It is in Him, and in Him alone, that justice and compassion, wrath and mercy, meet and are washed in the purity of His great love.