Life sentence = Two weeks??

Just moments ago, the lone man convicted of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie took off on an Airbus from Glasgow to make the trip back home to Libya. And with it could be the biggest gamble of an independent Scottish government since the hare-brained idea to colonise the Isthmus of Panama over 300 years ago.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish court in 2001 for placing on board the Pam Am flight the bomb that brought it down in December 1988, killing 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. That incident exacerbated Libya's isolationism under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and Pan Am's inevitable collapse and absorption into Delta. Megrahi was sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison.

Earlier today, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, from the Scottish Nationalist-led government, granted Megrahi's request for release on compassionate grounds, stating that Megrahi was terminally ill with prostate cancer and had only three months to live. MacAskill cited the prevailing desire of providing humanitarian compassion over justice. With the release granted instead of transferring Megrahi to a Libyan prison, Megrahi will have spent two weeks in prison for each fatality. And Megrahi will arrive in Libya on the night of an annual celebration commemorating Col. Gaddafi's rise to power.

Reaction among English politicans are like that of their American counterparts. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, himself a Scot, quickly declared the decision a Scottish affair. Conservative leader David Cameron, while affirming the right of the Scottish government to make the decision, called MacAskill's decision flat-out wrong. This statement was echoed by the leader of Scotland's Labour Party.

What complicates this case is the introduction of devolution to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales ten years ago. Had Pan Am 103 been stricken two minutes earlier, we'd probably be talking about the bombing occurring in Cumbria's Brampton, thus having the case go through English courts. (Ideally, we'd never be talking about it on account of the flight never coming down.) But since July 1999, Scotland has operated its domestic affairs separated from Westminster, but its foreign affairs still made by Westminster. The efforts by the U.S. State Department and seven senators were unable to sway the Scottish government, which will be seen by political pundits as a sign of Scotland asserting its right to independence.

As this chapter of this tragic incident plays out, mixing with the emotions of families on both sides of the pond, the question of devolution has found its way into the discussion. William Wallace just might be smiling.