Recently two major cases have been in the headlines that have promoted a lot of controversy. The first is the compassionate prison leave of train robber Ronny Biggs and the second the compassionate prison leave of the lockerby bomber. Both old men, both served too little of time in prison but should they have been granted compassionate suspended sentences for the crimes they committed?

ronny biggs was convicted of the great train robbery of 1963 where he along with other gang members stole 2.6 million pounds which equals something like forty million in today’s money. They held up a mail train that was transferring the money from Glasgow to London in the early hours of August 3RD 1963 and when caught was sent to prison.

He escaped in 1965 and travelled around the world escaping the police. Only in 2001 did he voluntarily return to the United Kingdom where he was re-arrested and imprisoned to serve the remaining twenty-eight years of his sentence.

He suffered from multiple strokes and heart attacks and was deemed to ill to continue his prison sentence. However, should he have been freed? Should he have been given that luxury to live his last days in the comfort of a nursing home with his family and friends beside him? Especially since he had eluded the authorities for so long. Upon the time of his release he had only served a third of his sentence and under home office policy, a prisoner can only be given compassionate leave when they are deemed terminally ill, that is to say that they have only three months to live.

So Biggs was released despite his short served sentence and was initially in a hospital. within days, however, he was released to a nursing home to be close to his family.

In the second case, the Lockerby bomber was released on similar compassionate grounds after having prostate cancer and again was deemed “terminal”.

Despite the event occurring in December 1988, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi wasn’t convicted and sentenced until 2001. 270 people perished in the crash over Scotland and yet Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi only received twenty-seven years. Upon his release on August 20th 2009, he had only served eight years of those twenty-seven and upon his arrival to Libya received a hero’s welcome.

How can either of these cases seem justified to anyone involved? The relatives of the 270 passengers and crew members and the driver of the mail train? Even if these men are dying, which is a medical fact, should they have been let go by the British authorities to spend the last days of their lives amidst the loving arms of their loved ones? Did their victims have that option?

Ronny Biggs stole a lot of money and beat a man and then went on to elude the authorities, apparently with little remorse of his actions. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi maintained his innocence and still both men only served a partial amount of their sentences. Am I that lacking of compassion that I don’t see the justification of releasing these men back into the comforts of freedom? After what they were convicted of doing, is it not again the question of who the British Justice System is protecting rather than the “right” thing to do? Should we then release monsters like Hindly and Brady if they get a cold?

I can understand the anger of those families who had their relatives lives ripped away from them upon these men’s release, especially Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi who savagely bombed 270 people from the skies. Why do the British so called justice system constantly see fit to protect the criminals rather than the victims memories? Should we have left them both their to die behind their prison cells? The answers lie only within those relatives who lost in my opinion, and maybe it would do the justice system some credit to consult the victims families in the future. Why should these criminals be given what human rights their relatives did not receive while Biggs was robbing a train for his own selfish needs and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was bombing a plane of passengers for his own self righteous beliefs.

If this wasn’t a slap in the face for the victim’s relatives as it was, Biggs is now being comforted and pampered in a nursing home and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is back in his home land with the hero worship of many of his fellow countrymen. Despite their discomfort, despite their illnesses, do they deserve the luxury of freedom and the comforts of their new lives? Can this really be considered compassion or just the joke the British Justice system has become?