DAVID Leask's glowing appreciation of Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland ("The Lord Advocate 'for all' has stayed true to beliefs", The Herald, March 26) rightly highlights his achievements in this high office once described by Lord McCluskey as Scotland's "watchdog for justice".
I have very positive memories of meeting him in the Crown Office when he graciously apologised to my daughter Shirley following the fingerprint fiasco. I felt that he was someone who listened, reflected and acted with integrity.
Since then however some have accused him of poor judgment in his response to the Andrew Coulson and bin lorry inquiries.
Perhaps more seminally, however,what will history make of a Lord Advocate who has joined the Scottish justice system in its 27 years of collective denial over the Lockerbie Pan Am tragedy which remains an abiding and indelible stain on that system?
How will history judge Scotland’s senior law officer who in 2012 allowed the Crown Office to label those who, in good faith, made nine criminal allegations against that authority and other prosecution witness involved in the investigation and subsequent trail of Abedelbaset al Megrahi as "conspiracy theorists" and the allegations themselves as "defamatory, unfounded, false and misleading"?
As we await the police report on these allegations being submitted to the Crown Office will Mr Mulholland take this opportunity to state publicly that this unprecedented bias and prejudice will not be allowed to influence any decisions that might be made on whether prosecutions should or should not follow?
Can he guarantee to the Scottish people that when the Police Scotland report is submitted neither he nor anyone associated with the Crown Office will have anything to do with the final decision whether to prosecute or not and that any such decisions made by any independent authority will not be open to be changed by the crown?
Should Mr Mulholland fail to make this undertaking then I suspect, in respect of Lockerbie at least, that history will judge him less than kindly and conclude that as Scotland’s "watchdog for justice" he has failed.
Iain A J McKie,
27 Donnini Court,
South Beach Road,
Ayr.
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