Sympathy for the devil

Sympathy for the devil

Jack Straw's harsh ruling on Biggs is all the more alarming in light of his past compassion for Pinochet

A frail old man, barely able to communicate, guilty of a crime committed many decades earlier, but unrepentant about his past, wants only to be released so that he can spend his final days with his family. Some people object, saying that the nature of the crime is such that the old man deserves to die in custody. Enter Jack Straw, the member of the government who must make the onerous decision on the old man's future. He realises that the old man is barely able to walk and is in a confused state of mind. He allows him to return home.

The old man was General Pinochet. In 2000, the then home secretary Jack Straw declined requests from Spain for Pinochet to stand trial for gross human rights violations and sent him back to Chile. Pinochet was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people, the torture of many thousands more, the removal of a democratically elected president and the looting of the national coffers. Straw still felt that mercy was appropriate.

We move to the present day. A frail old man, guilty of a crime committed many decades earlier, but supposedly unrepentant about his past, wants only to be released so that he can spend his final days with his family. His crime – being part of the gang that robbed the Glasgow to Euston mail train of more that £2m in 1964 – presumably seems more serious to Jack Straw than the deaths of a few thousand Chilean leftists. He pompously announces that Biggs must remain in jail. "Whilst the medical evidence indicates that your ability to commit further acts of violence has reduced to a very low level, I am concerned that you might incite and be involved in such acts of violence." Oh, come on. Does Straw really believe that tosh or did he just sign his name to something rustled up for him by some unfortunate civil servant?