(332)  TERRORISM AND THE SHRIEVAL BENCH INVERNESS-STORNOWAY

 

Part-time sheriff Raj Jandoo, best known as the author of one of the reports on the Crown Office following the Chhokhar affair in 2001 (see No 135), made an appearance from custody in the dock of Stornoway sheriff court on 16 March 2004.  He was charged with various breaches of the peace on a Loganair flight from Edinburgh to Stornoway on the 15th, which had also had a stop at Inverness.  The charges include failure to comply with instructions to switch off a mobile phone on the flight to Inverness, making references to a bomb while at Inverness airport and again on the Stornoway flight while repeatedly pressing buttons on his watch and looking around, and finally, on approach to Stornoway airport, not sitting but standing in the aisle and opening and searching overhead lockers.  Jandoo pleaded not guilty to all charges, and trial will take place on 1 June.  Meantime there was no sitting of the sheriff court at Lochmaddy on North Uist;  Scots Law News sources close to Lochmaddy report that at least one accused, down to answer charges pertaining to the manner of his driving but sent away in the absence of the bench unavoidably detained in Lewis, spent the day instead carrying out lawful repairs to another vehicle in Berneray.  It’s an ill wind …