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

From yesterdays Daily Record it has surfaced that the families indeed can apply to SCCRC and ask them to review (Again) the case of Al Megrahi

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news...l-megrahi-s-death-86908-21653716/

Exclusive: Lockerbie families could exploit legal loophole to raise conviction appeal after al-Megrahi's death
Sep 7 2009 John Ferguson

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's appeal could be back on, the Record can reveal.

Family members of those killed have learned a legal loophole will allow a third party to have the case reopened on Megrahi's behalf after his death.

The convicted terrorist - who is dying from cancer - sensationally dropped his case days before being freed on compassionate grounds.

The move was viewed as a massive blow to the chances of the public ever getting to the truth of the Pan Am flight 103 explosion, which killed 270 in 1988.

But the families - some of whom believe Megrahi is innocent - held talks yesterday to discuss the possibility of applying to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for an investigation.

Doctor Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed, said: "We want to know the truth and his appeal was to be our way of getting to that.

"Any way there is to dig out this appeal, anything that makes it more likely that the appeal could be reborn, would be music to our ears.

"We would certainly be interested in looking at taking this up ourselves or asking someone to do that on our behalf if that is possible."

Normally an appeal cannot be restarted once abandoned.

But legislation drawn up before the SCCRC were introduced in 1999 states that anyone - not just the convicted person - can apply for a case to be investigated on grounds there has been a miscarriage of justice.

And should the Commission refer the case to the appeal court, it must be considered.

A Scottish Justiciary Office spokesman said: "As we have had proceedings to formally abandon the appeal, some reason would have to be given to resurrect it.

"But technically, there is provision within the legislation that created the SCCRC for the appeal court to consider it."

Can anyone see how they would fail to or refuse to refer this case again after producing a 600 page document largely ignored by our Justice Secretary in his speech when he released Megrahi back to Libya.

How Oppressive would this be seen by the rest of the world after showing Compassion to Megrahi if they could find a reason not to refer this case in the Interests of Justice.

After all justice must be seen to be done, always.

Failing this for some unknown reason, then it would be open to the family of Al Megrahi to re-appeal to SCCRC once he is dead, claiming he was unduly pressured into dropping his appeal, when all along (According to Nicola Sturgeon) there was never any intention to release Megrahi under any PTA because it was tainted with Oil Deals .

Who told him, and when was Megrahi told he would have to drop his appeal before being eligible for transfer under any PTA Agreement.

The actions of Kenny MacAskill in visiting Megrahi will always be seen as "The Deal At Greenock"

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

Relevant evidence SCCRC would need to be the following:

Section 303A of the 1995 act

“Transfer of rights of appeal of deceased person

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 525

I think Mr Swire needs to do this ASAP (lodge an appeal to the SCCRC), my experience tells me and shows that the courts are quick to plug any loopholes, and I am surprised that this door was left open before Mr Megrahi was released.

Truth and Justice should always come first, and the families deserve the truth, the whole and nothing but the truth so help us God.

Justice must be seen to be done. And the only way to do this is to continue this appeal.

Thank God for people like Mr Swire.

The SCCRC have already referred this case back claiming there has been a miscarriage of justice.

Now let us see the 600 page document.

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 525

This is the Press Release that the SCCRC gave on the Megrahi case

Credit where it is due, they have worked very hard on this case and have a 600 page document on their findings. this appeal should be allowed to continue for Justice' sake.

http://www.sccrc.org.uk/viewfile.aspx?id=293

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 525

http://www.bigissuescotland.com/news/view/184

Megrahi mistake?

04/09/2009

Top QC questions why second appeal wasn't brought forward

One of Britain’s best-known barristers says the furore over the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi could have been avoided by the Scottish Government.

Leading QC Michael Mansfield – who previously represented the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four - told the Big Issue the Scottish Government was right to release al-Megrahi, but said there were still unanswered legal questions over its handling by the SNP government.

He said: “Of course there is room for compassion within the justice system. I’m sympathetic, the guy has prostrate cancer and he’s about to die, so I don’t have a problem with letting him out. What I have problem with is that there was a way of doing it that would have avoided all the pitfalls.”

Mansfield, who sat in on al-Megrahi’s first appeal in 2002 and was mooted as part of his defence team, said he is left wondering why the Scottish Government did not bring forward al-Megrahi’s second appeal which had been pending since 2006 and base their decision on its outcome. “That way the court decides whether the conviction is reliable or not,” he explained.

“The court either upholds the conviction, in which case the Scottish Government could have transferred him as a convicted prisoner to a prison in Libya and satisfied the Americans, or the court would have quashed the conviction and he went home a free man.” “This isn’t being reported, and I keep asking myself ‘have I missed something here’?”

Megrahi, 57, who is terminally ill, was freed last week by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. He had been given a life sentence for killing 270 people in the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and had served eight years of his sentence. He has always maintained his innocence.

Al-Megrahi’s first appeal was turned down in 2002 and he lodged a second appeal in 2004. That was due to begin two years later but delays have meant that by the time of his release this month, no appeal had been heard.

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 525

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article6820630.ece

Sir,

I was a member of the team of lawyers who acted for Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in his claim against the UK of breach of the right to a fair trial under the European Human Rights Convention. I met him in prison and, after carefully studying the transcripts of his trial and the judgments of the Scottish courts, came to the conclusion that he had been the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected his claim without even communicating it to the Government, but the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission was sufficiently concerned to refer the case back to the Scottish judiciary.

I express no opinion about the decision to allow Mr al-Megrahi to return to die in Libya. But in my view, it is a misfortune that he has been induced to abandon his appeal. Had the appeal proceeded, it would have given him the opportunity to clear his name not only for his sake but also for the sake of the families bereaved by the mass murder at Lockerbie.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill, QC

House of Lords
_________________
Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Native American Indian Prayer that my dad taught me.

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 525

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6831579.ece

Gareth Peirce calls for independent inquiry into Lockerbie bombing

An independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing was called for last night by a leading human rights lawyer.

Gareth Peirce, who has represented a string of high-profile victims of miscarriage of justice, said that the forensic evidence on which the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was convicted was flawed.

The finding itself was “very, very worrying” and based the same kind of discredited forensic science that was at the heart of several notable miscarriages of justice in the '70s and '80s, she said.

“The [Lockerbie] case was founded on twin pillars: one, that al-Megrahi was linked to a charred fragment of a bomb timer; and second, his identification was ‘claimed’ by a man who could not be sure of his evidence.

“Has everyone forgotten the lessions learned of lawed scientified evidence and identification?

“The point being made by the families over 20 years is that they want to know the cause of the Lockerbie diaster. And at every turn, limitations have been put on their ability to discover it.”

Ms Peirce, who in a career spanning 30 years has acted for the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six and families of the Marchioness river boat disaster, was speaking at a special event in London attended by campaigners and experts including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was among the 270 killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie.

She said that there had been a Fatal Accidents Inquiry in 1999, which was limited to the immediate cause of the explosion so as not to prejudice future prosecutions, she said.

Some 15 years later there was the prosecution in the Hague of two Libyans, where the family could only be prsent and observe. But there had never been a “proper explanation of what they want to hear.”

But a UN assessor appointed to the trial had been scathing of the judges’ verdict, she adde, and of the “atmosphere of political interference that permeated the trial”.

It was now down to ministers to set up an independent inquiry, whether Scottish or UK ministers, she said.

“I completely endorse what the families say, that this country, Britain, bears the responsibility for there being an adequate investigation into what actually occured.”

She added that the fact that the case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Scottish Criminal Cases Appeal Commission showed the huge obstacles that al-Megrahi had surmounted.

“It is very difficult to get a case referred back. “He then had a choice of abandoning it and going home to die, or staying a fighting it,” she added.

But it was crucial that the evidence assembled came out. “The families had believed that after 20 years there was about to be a proper investigation. But their wishes have been frustrated.”