Like the Birmingham Six where being Irish was the qualification for conviction, the same logic was applied here. Swap Arab for Irish. Guilt was not a consideration. Appeasing the public like in a life or death Roman coliseum game was the main consideration. Some family members of dead American passengers even campaigned against this man's trail! The real guilty party were not Libyan.

The idea of locking up obviously innocent men as a deterrent as in Guantanamo may have germinated in British justice, forever besmirched with miscarriages of justice. We'll see if this one is put right. Better that guilty men go free....