Scotland's top law officers were left embarrassed yesterday after a High Court judge criticised them in front of two United Nations observers.
The legal experts were in the public benches of the court in Glasgow to examine the Scottish legal system.
They will report back to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as to whether the Lockerbie bombing suspects in Libya should face a Scottish court or be tried in another country.
They were in Court Three of Glasgow's #28m showpiece court extension, when a woman first offender admitted a charge of trafficking in cannabis.
Advocate depute Mr Allan Dewar, prosecuting, was asked by Lord McCluskey why it took the Lord Advocate's office so long to bring the case to court and why it was there at all.
College student Miss Lesley Green, 29, admitted to police after her arrest 10 months ago dealing in more than #3000 worth of cannabis from her Glasgow flat, said Mr Dewar.
He said: ''It has probably taken since February to bring to court because of the pressure of business.
''The Crown were not aware until last week that the accused, who was on bail, was offering to plead guilty.''
Lord McCluskey said: ''I am puzzled as to why this young woman, accused of dealing in a modest amount of a Class B drug, should be before the High Court.
''There is no justification for bringing this case to the High Court and it is incomprehensible that it has taken 10 months to bring to court when she freely admitted her guilt to police at the time of her arrest.''
Mr Dewar said the judge's comments would be passed on to Lord Hardie, the Lord Advocate in charge of the Crown Office.
Green, of Armadale Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow, will be sentenced later this month.
She admitted dealing in cannabis from her flat over a one-month period after her plea of not guilty to trafficking in the drug for a year was accepted by the Crown.
The two UN experts, Dr Enoch Dumbutshena, a former Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, and Professor Henry Schermers, a Dutchman and former Justice of the European Court of Human Rights, declined to comment after the case.
They also observed two other court cases before visiting Barlinnie Prison.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article