Professor Robert Black, who was once again in court for the latest procedural hearings in the Megrahi criminal appeal last week, has published a call for the High Court to publish Megrahi's grounds of appeal in the interests of clarity.

Megrahi's appeal is based on wider grounds than those ennumerated by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, who elected to limit their referral of the case back to the court to a few select grounds of the discredited prosecution case.

Megrahi's appeal is listed in numbered paragraphs available to the court, but not the public or attendant press.

"The appellant’s written Grounds of Appeal are not a public document. It follows that while the grounds are being discussed in court, those sitting in the public benches find it very difficult to follow the proceedings," Black says.

"These persons include representatives of the press, law students, humble bloggers and, by far the most important, relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster. These last have expressed to me the deep sense of exclusion that they feel when numbered grounds of appeal are discussed while they themselves are in complete ignorance of what issues these numbered grounds relate to.

"I appreciate that the Grounds of Appeal are a very lengthy document and contain legal argument as well as mere bald specification of appeal points. If it is thought undesirable that the document in this form be in the public domain, would it not be possible for a summary (perhaps confined to the headings and sub-headings of the various grounds) to be made public? This would be greatly appreciated by the relatives and would be of immense value to the press and to bloggers in their mission to provide accurate and useful information and commentary on the proceedings.

"I respectfully invite the court and the parties to give consideration to this proposal," Black concludes.

The court have not yet indicated if they will accede.