Saturday 8 November 2008

20 years on and Lockerbie victim's father still searches for the truth

This is the headline over a moving article on the website of the Sunday Mercury, a newspaper serving largely the English midlands. It consists largely of interviews with Jim and Jane Swire. It reads in part:

'... Jim pledged to win justice for his daughter and all those killed on Pan Am Flight 103. Yet over the years he has become convinced the Libyans were not involved.

'He said: “The evidence points to the involvement of Iran and Syria, not Libya. The case against al-Megrahi, I believe is invalid.”

'Jim believes the Lockerbie bombing was a revenge attack against the Americans who had ordered an Iranian Airbus to be shot down months before Lockerbie killing 290 innocent people.

'He also believes a Syrian terror group had amassed a cache of bombs designed for infiltration into European airports, explosives would sense the drop of pressure as an aircraft climbed into the skies - and would explode about 40 minutes after take-off.

'And the Lockerbie bomb, he claims, may have been handed to and planted by an insider at Heathrow during a break-in the night before the disaster.

'But with al-Megrahi serving a life sentence, he fears the true story will never be known unless the conviction is overturned.

'Jim added: “I believe that the truth will never come out while I am alive. Justice will not be done in my lifetime.”

'Soon after Lockerbie Jim and Jane planted young trees in the grounds of their family home in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, which they named Flora’s Wood.

'The trees are mature now and still stand there today, despite the couple selling the house in 2002. They were planted in the shape of an F for Flora, a poignant outline that can still be seen from satellite pictures on Google Earth.'

The full article can be read here.

1 comment:

  1. With respect to the Lockerbie victims Families group in UK and USA (PanAm 103 aircrash).

    It’s 20 years ago but "Lockerbie Victim no. 271",
    Mr Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi and the Libyans were demonstrable not involved in the PanAm 103 Tragedy...

    by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd, Switzerland

    ReplyDelete