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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

The Families of loved ones lost in the terrible Lockerbie Atrocity have viewed videos showing new evidence never seen before.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/n...or_new_inquiry_into_Lockerbie.php

I back their calls for an Enquiry outwith the case of Megrahi.

Article in full:

April 24 2009

Families of the victims of the Lockerbie tragedy are applying pressure to politicians and calling for a fresh inquiry, days before the appeal of the man convicted of the bombing is due to begin.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the tragedy, has written to other relatives to explain his belief that they have been "pawns in a political scenario which had nothing to do with truth".

On the day that a new film about Lockerbie that was expected to raise serious questions about the prosecution was screened in the Scottish Parliament, Dr Swire also wrote to The Herald to express his concerns about the case and call for a new inquest into the bombing that killed 270 people in December 1988.

The film, which was shown to MSPs and relatives last night, is expected to undermine part of the forensics case put by the prosecution.

Dr Swire's letter comes just days after campaign group UK Families Flight 103 issued a statement accusing Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, of backtracking on his earlier sympathy for the bereaved.

They accused Mr Straw of hypocrisy over moves to clear the way for the man convicted of the bombing to return home.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, currently serving 27 years in Greenock Prison, could be transferred home to Libya under an agreement being rushed through parliament by the UK Justice Secretary.

The Herald revealed last week that the relatives had received an e-mail from the Crown Office seen as a tacit warning that the man convicted of the killings is likely to be granted a transfer under a new agreement between the UK and the African nation that is likely to be ratified early next week.

Megrahi, who is suffering from advanced prostate cancer, is due to begin appeal proceedings at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh on April 28.

Prisoners still engaged in criminal proceedings would not be eligible for repatriation under the terms of the agreement, and he would have to drop the appeal in order to apply for a transfer.

The Westminster Joint Select Committee on Human Rights called last month for the ratification of the agreement to be delayed until at least the end of April, pending investigation into concerns over the content of the treaty. However, Mr Straw insisted earlier this month that the treaty must go ahead early.

In his letter, Dr Swire raises serious concerns about the validity of the original trial and the Fatal Accident Inquiry - particularly in light of evidence that came to light after they concluded, which indicated there had been a break-in at Heathrow airport the night before the tragedy.

He also told The Herald: "For me, the passive attitude displayed by Heathrow in not making a realistic response to the break-in, with its terrible implications, remains inexcusable.

"However, we also have a right to know who was behind the suppression of this material, which has undermined the trial as well as our Fatal Accident Inquiry.

"It would appear that orders must have come from the very top, and you will remember that Thatcher was never prepared to meet us to discuss an objective inquiry, but later 1993 claimed in her book The Downing Street Years that the USAF bombing of Tripoli in 1986 had prevented further terrorist outrages by Libya.

"We were, I believe, right from the earliest days, pawns in a political scenario which had nothing to do with truth, and whose parameters also conveniently concealed the appalling irresponsibility of the Heathrow authorities."

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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

New evidence suggests wrong suspects were pursued for Pan Am 103 bombing over LockerbieA film shown in the Scottish Parliament yesterday evening attacks the only remaining strong support for the prosecution case that Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie by a timer bomb put on the aircraft in Malta. Explosives tests by a number of independent experts have shown that a circuit board placed as close to the Semtex as the Malta device must have been could not have survived as the fragment was supposed to have survived. The 6000 degree C heat and the shock wave reduce circuit boards so close to that amount of Semtex to a powder. In addition, recent tests on the fragment itself are alleged to show that it bears no trace of explosives residues.

Information about a break-in at Heathrow Airport on the night before the bombing was recorded at once in the security log, but no trace was found of the person or persons responsible. Next morning (the Lockerbie disaster), the airport was allowed to function as usual.

We know of multiple warnings of the terrorist threats at the time, and any high-profile airport which has suffered a break-in could hardly have a more dangerous warning of possible terror to come. Had appropriate action been taken at Heathrow, our families might be alive today.

There is worse. A Heathrow security guard who said he knew about the break-in had been interviewed by the Met's anti-terror squad early in 1989, and the police investigated Heathrow closely in January 1989, even doing a re-run of the loading of the baggage container. They must surely have seen the previous night's security log.

This break-in evidence only became available to the rest of us after the Camp Zeist court had convicted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.

The Heathrow break-in would have been the perfect scenario for the Syrian-backed PFLP-GC to put one of its bombs on the aircraft. I can think of potent reasons why both the UK and the United States were unwilling to confront Iran and/or Syria over Lockerbie. The evidence from the break-in strongly supported the use of a PFLP-GC (Syrian) bomb. The PFLP-GC was closely associated with Iran and appeared to derive substantial financial reward from Tehran after the bombing.

For me, the passive attitude at Heathrow in not making a realistic response to the break-in with its terrible implications remains inexcusable. However, we also have a right to know who was behind the suppression of this material, which has undermined the trial, as well as our fatal accident inquiry.

It would appear that orders must have come from the very top. Margaret Thatcher was never prepared to meet us to discuss an objective inquiry, but later claimed in her book The Downing Street Years (1993) that the US Air Force bombing of Tripoli in 1986 had prevented further terrorist outrages by Libya.

By 1993, the indictments against the two Libyans were already two years old.

We were, I believe, right from the earliest days, pawns in a political scenario that had nothing to do with truth.

If the prisoner transfer agreement does abort the next appeal, we shall at last be free of any claims that "due UK process" has to continue. In that situation, I think we should discuss the immediate demand for a new inquest or fatal accident inquiry, and referral to the European courts on human rights grounds.

Dr Jim Swire, Isle of Skye.

Extracted from here:

http://www.theherald.co.uk/featur...Am_103_bombing_over_Lockerbie.php
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Angeline · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 148

What drives me crazy about this case is the way the authorities appear to think the rest of us are as thick as mince.

Jack Straw "insisted the treaty must go ahead early." Why? If the man had a brain cell or two to rub together, he'd realise that he's as good as waved a huge neon sign saying "We're hiding things here."

The amount of information in the public domain now makes it clear that this case stinks to the high heavens, yet our MPs, whilst appearing to bury their own heads in the sand, think they're convincing the rest of us to do the same.

Or is it a bit like the police "official line" when they're caught doing something wrong - deny, deny and deny again, even in the face of concrete evidence. If denying isn't enough, make some noises about "unintentional" or "one off case" then carry on regardless.

Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!![/img]
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Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1149 Location: Glasgow

Angeline

I would love to have seen the video shown to MSPs and the families the other day at Parliament.

I hope they have had their eyes opened to the sort of things being hidden in this case.

I feel more for the families knowing they will never get to the truth of who killed their loved ones.

Our Parliament should hang it's head in shame if they allow this sham to continue.
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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

http://www.independent.co.uk/news...rbie-bomb-conviction-1674382.html

New witness casts doubt on Lockerbie bomb conviction

Appeal will hear challenge to guilt of the only man jailed for the 1988 outrage on Pan Am Flight 103

Rachel Shields

Sunday, 26 April 2009

A new witness is expected this week to undermine thoroughly the case against the only person to be convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. New testimony will call into question evidence linking the Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi to the bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, his lawyers claim.

Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, is serving 27 years in Greenock prison for the bombing.

Appeal hearings are due to begin on Tuesday, and Megrahi's lawyers insisted this weekend they will go ahead as planned, despite speculation that he may be returned to Libya under the terms of a controversial prisoner transfer agreement, due to be ratified tomorrow.

"We are turning up next week," said Tony Kelly, his solicitor. "We are seeking that the court upholds his appeal, admit that there has been a miscarriage of justice, and grant him his liberty. Whatever remedies come after that is for after the appeal."

Appeal documents seen by The Independent on Sunday reveal that testimony from a new witness is expected to undermine the evidence of a key prosecution witness, Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper. His testimony was vital in connecting Megrahi to the bombing at the trial in 2001.

Mr Gauci identified Megrahi as the person who bought the tweed suit, baby sleepsuit and umbrella found among the remnants of the suitcase that contained the bomb on board.

The new witness, not named in the documents, will provide an account the defence claims is "startling in its consistency with Mr Gauci's account of the purchase, but adds considerable doubt to the date the key items were purchased and identification of Megrahi as the purchaser".

All of this may be academic, as 56-year-old Megrahi, who was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in October 2008, has been reported as having less than a year to live and the appeal could take two years.

Increasingly, however, it seems likely that the Lockerbie suspect will spend his last days in Libya. This month, officials wrote to the families of victims of the bombing explaining the prisoner transfer programme, interpreted as a tacit agreement that Megrahi may be returned to Libya. Under the terms of the deal, if Megrahi participates in the transfer scheme, he will forfeit his right to appeal.

"If he goes back to Libya, it will be a bitter pill to swallow, as an appeal would reveal the fallacies in the prosecution case," said Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed on Flight 103. Dr Swire is a member of UK Families Flight 103, which wants a public inquiry into the crash. "I've lost faith in the Scottish criminal justice system, but if the appeal is heard, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that the prosecution case will survive."

Iain McKie · Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 263 Location: Ayr, Scotland.

The sad truth is as Jim Swire states.

Quote:

"I've lost faith in the Scottish criminal justice system, but if the appeal is heard, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that the prosecution case will survive."

Our justice system has let the victims and their families down and I believe it is about to compound the injustice. When Mr Megrahi is rightly returned to his family to live out his last few months the appeal will be halted and the truth will never be known.

Only the Scottish Government can stop this process and sadly I do not see this happening.

An interesting side issue to this latest article is the important part one of the ongoing Fingerprint Inquiry’s main witnesses, Harry Bell, played in the Lockerbie investigation.

He interviewed the man that the Independent describes as the,

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

Split among Lockerbie relatives as Megrahi bids to clear name

Published Date: 29 April 2009
By JOHN ROBERTSON
Law Correspondent
VICTIMS' relatives at the long-awaited opening of the Lockerbie bomber's second appeal were divided on whether he should be freed or ordered to continue serving a life sentence.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, 57, is suffering from prostate cancer and was not in the dock at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday. His condition in Greenock prison is said to have deteriorated.

His lawyer argued that Megrahi's conviction had been a miscarriage of justice, and the claim found support from Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was among the 270 victims.

"I think the real perpetrator was Iran, which paid money to a Syrian group to introduce one of its devices at Heathrow on the day of the disaster," he said. "I think this appeal will lead to the overthrowing of the verdict."

The Rev John Mosey, who lost his daughter Helga in the bombing, said:

"I am here hoping to hear whatever new evidence there is about how our daughter was murdered 20 years ago.

"I am hoping nothing will prevent that coming into the public domain. Having sat through the trial, I came away with the profound impression that this man was not guilty or, even if he is, the evidence led in that court did not show him to be guilty beyond reasonable doubt."

Asked about Megrahi's medical condition, he said: "Of course, I have sympathy for him. He is a fellow human being whether he killed my daughter or not."

Strikingly contrasting views were given by Jack and Kathleen Flynn, of New Jersey in the United States, whose son, John Patrick, died in the explosion.

Mr Flynn said: "Justice would be Mr Megrahi to serve his term. I went to the trial every day either at Kamp Zeist or to the closed circuit television link in New York. I saw all the evidence. I noted it and discussed it with attorneys and everybody agreed he was guilty. Yes, he was the right man. Yes, he did it."

There had been speculation Megrahi might abandon his appeal, which would be necessary if he were to attempt to use a new prisoner-transfer treaty between Libya and the United Kingdom to serve the rest of his sentence at home. He has completed ten years of a minimum term of 27 years.

It is almost two years since the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission sent the case for a rehearing by the appeal court on the ground that it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

Megrahi had been convicted in 2001 by a three-judge bench at a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands, and five judges rejected a first appeal in 2002.

While new evidence could feature in later parts of the second appeal, the current hearing, expected to last four weeks, is to examine the evidence led at the trial and to see whether the guilty verdict was reasonable.

Angeline · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 148

Given the urgency of this case because of Mr Megrahi's health, wouldn't it have made more sense to examine the new evidence first?

I know we have "procedures," but examining the "fair trial" aspect for the first 4 weeks just seems like another stalling tactic - even if every i was dotted and t crossed procedurally, it wouldn't matter a jot if the new evidence shows that someone else was responsible, or that it would have had a significant impact on the verdict, had it been known at the time.

This insistence on sticking to the letter of the law when it suits, but abandoning any and all of the rules also when it suits has to be addressed - the Nat Fraser case, when one judge made the taking and returning of the rings absolutely central to the case, and the appeal judges then (on finding out it was the police who took and returned the rings) ruling that this part of the case was "not significant" is one example.
Another is the appeal judges' decision in the Luke Mitchell case that police questioning was "outrageous and to be deplored" and then upholding the conviction anyway.

Quite simply, they can't deny that they have this "flexibility" to change the rules as they see fit, so why not in this case?
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As long as one heart still holds on, then hope will never really be gone

Iain McKie · Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 263 Location: Ayr, Scotland.

Independence is valued above all else by our judges and prosecutors even if this often leads to inconsistency in assessment and sentencing.

Of course this claim to infallibility leads to power complacency, inflated egos and plain wrong headed decisions that most of the legal elite and politicians (many of whom are lawyers) are loathe to challenge – why criticise powers that you might inherit in the future.

This power base is supported culturally and is extremely hard to shift!!

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

Its so sad that these powers that be dont want the truth to come out.
It makes me so angry at the lengths they will go to stop openess and justice.

What a choice to give a dying man. We will let you go home if you stop appealling. Its sickening.

If he does go home, and I cant say I blame him if he does, will this mean there will never be any investigation or closure to this case?

UK and Libya make prisoner deal

The UK has signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

The agreement will allow the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to apply to serve the rest of his sentence in a Libyan jail.

Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, who has prostate cancer, is currently being held in Greenock prison in Scotland.

He has begun a second appeal against his conviction for the 1988 attack on Pan AM Flight 103.

The BBC's North Africa correspondent, Rana Jawad, said the package treaty encompasses four agreements, including prisoner transfer, extradition, mutual legal assistance, and civil and commercial law.

Any possible transfer to a Libyan prison would depend on Megrahi dropping his current appeal, which is expected to last a year.

And any transfer agreement would have to be ratified by Scottish ministers, who would have the final say before the Foreign Office.

There has been no comment from Megrahi's legal team about whether they are to apply for him to be transferred to a Libyan jail.

Megrahi's second appeal is being heard by five judges in Edinburgh, headed by Scotland's senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton.

He has already lost one appeal against his conviction for the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people died.

Since then he has been in prison in Scotland, and must remain in jail until at least 2026.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/8024914.stm

Published: 2009/04/29 13:38:43 GMT