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Kenneth Wright MacAskill is a Scottish politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian since 2019. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2007 to 2014 and was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2016. A former member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he defected to the Alba Party in 2021, and serves as their depute leader.
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Court building in the Old Town in Edinburgh, or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland, where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court, the High Court sits only in Edinburgh. On one occasion the High Court of Justiciary sat outside Scotland, at Zeist in the Netherlands during the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, as the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At Zeist the High Court sat both as a trial court, and an appeal court for the initial appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
Peter Lovat Fraser, Baron Fraser of Carmyllie, PC, QC was a Scottish politician and advocate.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya, and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer. On 31 January 2001, Megrahi was convicted, by a panel of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, of 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty and was acquitted.
The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial began on 3 May 2000, 11 years, 4 months and 13 days after the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988. The 36-week bench trial took place at a specially convened Scottish Court in the Netherlands set up under Scots law and held at a disused United States Air Force base called Camp Zeist near Utrecht.
Ranald Norman Munro MacLean, Lord MacLean is a retired Scottish judge.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, established by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
William Taylor, QC has been a Scottish advocate since 1971 and a QC since 1986. He has also been a barrister in England and Wales since 1990 and a Queen's Counsel there since 1998. He has specialised in criminal defence work since the 1980s.
Robert Black is Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh. He has been an Advocate in Scotland since 1972, was in practice at the Bar and became a QC in 1987.
Herbert Swire, best known as Jim Swire, is an English doctor best known for his involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which his daughter Flora was killed. Swire lobbied toward a solution for the difficulties in bringing suspects in the original bombing to trial, and later advocated the retrial and release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the originally convicted suspect in the case. Swire also carried a fake bomb onto an aircraft as a demonstration of lax security.
James Alexander Mackay QPM retired as Deputy Chief Constable of Tayside Police in 2001. He has had considerable experience of criminal investigation and major inquiries. He is especially interested in forensic science and has served on national committees particularly in the field of DNA in police investigation.
Gerard Sinclair is Chief Executive of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC).
Ruth Anderson, QC has extensive experience of the criminal justice system. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1972, and as an advocate in 1991, taking silk in 1999. Her practice at the Bar has been principally a criminal one, defending in the High Court of Justiciary. She also served as an Advocate Depute from 1998 until January 2001. Miss Anderson has had local government experience and has also worked in private practice as a solicitor. She was appointed a part-time Sheriff in May 2003 and a full-time sheriff in September 2006. Ruth Anderson now owns a bookshop in Wigtown, name'd Well-Read Books of Wigtown.
Graham Clark Bell OBE KC is a Scottish advocate.
Tony Gauci was the proprietor of Mary's House, a clothes shop in Tower Road, Sliema, Malta, who was a witness in the prosecution of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in relation to the Lockerbie Bombing.
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by Clipper Maid of the Seas, a Boeing 747-121 registered N739PA. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, while the aircraft was in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it was destroyed by a bomb that had been planted on board, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, it is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom, as well as its deadliest aviation disaster.
John Beckett, Lord Beckett, is a Scottish lawyer who was appointed in 2016 as a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Court of Session.
Francis Mulholland, Lord Mulholland, is a Scottish judge who has been a Senator of the College of Justice since 2016. He previously served from 2011 to 2016 as Lord Advocate, one of the Great Officers of State of Scotland and the country's chief Law Officer, and as Solicitor General, the junior Law Officer.
Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission stemmed from the dispute between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Libya concerning arrangements for the trial of two Libyans accused of causing the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.
Alistair John MacKenzie Duff is a former Scottish advocate and sheriff who later became Director of the Judicial Institute of Scotland before resigning after being arrested and charged with undisclosed offences.
References
- 1 2 Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 1590. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
- ↑ "Judge, sheriff, teacher, author: honouring Sir Gerald Gordon's lifetime achievement". The Scotsman. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- 1 2 "Sir Gerald Gordon: Biographical Note and Bibliography". University of Edinburgh School of Law. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ↑ "News Release: Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission". Scottish Government. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ↑ "Sheriff Sir Gerald Gordon, CBE, QC". Debrett's . Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ↑ "ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI". Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ↑ "Sir Gerald Henry Gordon CBE QC HonFRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
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