| Kenny MacAskill MSP | |
|---|---|
| Cabinet Secretary for Justice | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 17 May 2007 |
|
| First Minister | Alex Salmond |
| Preceded by | Cathy Jamieson (as Minister for Justice) |
| Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern Edinburgh East and Musselburgh 2007-2011 |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 3 May 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Susan Deacon |
| Majority | 2233 (7.3%) |
| Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothians |
|
| In office 6 May 1999 – 3 May 2007 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 April 1958 Edinburgh |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Political party | Scottish National Party |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Website | www.kennymacaskill.co.uk |
Kenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, formerly Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007. He was previously a regional MSP for Lothian since 1999, and had been Shadow Justice and Home Affairs Minister.
Born in Edinburgh, MacAskill was educated at Linlithgow Academy and Edinburgh University, and was a senior partner in a law firm. He was a long standing member of the SNP's National Executive Committee and has been National Treasurer and Vice Convener of Policy. In 2004 Kenny wrote a book entitled Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland. He has since edited another book Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020 and has co-authored two books on the Scottish Diaspora, Global Scots - Voices From Afar and Wherever the Saltire Flies, with the former First Minister Henry McLeish.
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MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh. After completing his training at a firm in Glasgow, he set up Erskine MacAskill. He is married with two sons.
He came to prominence inside the SNP through his activities in the left wing 79 Group and became a party office bearer. In the 1980s he led the "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign in opposition to the Poll Tax. It was widely known that he often disagreed politically with Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP through the 1990s, and he was at one stage viewed as belonging to the SNP Fundamentalist camp, being perceived to be allied to figures such as Jim Sillars and Alex Neil within the party.
After MacAskill became on MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an independent nation state. In this respect he was regarded as having adopted a gradualist approach to Scottish independence in place of his previous fundamentalist position. He was one of former SNP leader John Swinney's closest supporters.
In 1999 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.[1] As he was not charged with any crime the incident did not affect his position within the SNP and he won re-election at the 2003 election.
In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. He had initially intended to stand for deputy leader himself on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon, who would have sought the leadership. He gave way when Salmond reconsidered his earlier decision not to seek re-election to the leadership. Upon their election as leader and deputy leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's deputy leader in the Scottish Parliament, making him the shadow Deputy First Minister.
MacAskill authored a book, 'Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland', which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness. He has since edited another book 'Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020' and has co-authored 'Global Scots - Voices From Afar' with former First Minister Henry McLeish.
For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region. He stood in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency, winning that seat from the Scottish Labour Party with a 13.3% swing to give a majority of 1,382. This was the first time the SNP had ever won a parliamentary seat in Edinburgh. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, MacAskill became the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.
One of MacAskill's first acts as a cabinet secretary was to lift the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games held at Murrayfield Stadium.[2]
MacAskill also insisted that the 2007 terror attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by 'home-grown' terrorists in that the suspects were not "born or bred" in Scotland but had merely lived in the country for a "period of time".[3]
MacAskill won election to a redrawn constituency of Edinburgh Eastern in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.[4] Despite notionally facing a deficit of 550 votes,[5] MacAskill won by over 2000 votes.[4]
On 19 August 2009, MacAskill rejected an application by Libya to transfer to their custody Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bomb that killed 270 people, acknowledging that "the American families and Government had an expectation or were led to believe that there would be no prisoner transfer." [6] "Immediately after announcing this decision,"[7] however, MacAskill authorised al-Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds. Megrahi had served 8½ years of a life sentence, but doctors certified that he had developed prostate cancer and had "only a very short period of time to live".[8][9] The Justice Secretary has discretionary authority to order such a release, and MacAskill has taken sole responsibility for the decision.[10][11]
As of September 2011, Megrahi is still alive.
In the United States, whence 180 of the 270 victims came, the decision met with broad hostility. Political figures including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against it,[12][13] and families of the victims expressed indignation over the decision.[14] FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, wrote a highly critical open letter to MacAskill.[15] Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish was critical of Mueller's attack on the decision.[16]
In Britain, reaction was divided. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, former First Minister Jack McConnell, and former Scottish Office minister Brian Wilson criticised the decision,[17][18] while Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and former British ambassador to Libya Richard Dalton publicly supported it.[19][20] Ian Galloway and Mario Conti, representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church respectively, also spoke in favour of the release.[21]
John Mosey, a priest who lost a daughter on Pan Am Flight 103, expressed his disappointment that halting Megrahi’s appeal before it went to court meant that the public would never hear "this important evidence — the six separate grounds for appeal that the SCCRC felt were important enough to put forward, that could show that there’s been a miscarriage of justice."[22] Saif al-Islam Gaddafi reiterated his belief in Megrahi's innocence commenting that the Justice Secretary had "made the right decision" and that history would prove this to be the case.[23] A letter in support of MacAskill's decision was sent to the Scottish Government on behalf of former South African President Nelson Mandela.[24]
The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer break, for the third time since its creation, to receive a statement from and question MacAskill.[25] The opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament passed amendments criticising the decision and the way it was made, but no motions of confidence in MacAskill or the Scottish Government were tabled.[26]
After MacAskill won re-election to the Scottish Parliament in 2011, a Scottish National Party supporter said that the decision had been mentioned by very few voters during the election campaign.[27]
| Scottish Parliament | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Constituency created |
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern 2011–present |
Incumbent |
| Preceded by Susan Deacon |
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh 2007–2011 |
Succeeded by Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Cathy Jamieson (as Minister for Justice) |
Cabinet Secretary for Justice 2007–present |
Incumbent |
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