Thursday 19 August 2010

Lockerbie bombing 'should be investigated by independent inquiry'

[This is the headline over a report just published on The Guardian website. It reads in part:]

A senior human rights lawyer has called for an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing as controversy intensifies over the convicted bomber's early release on medical grounds.

Professor Alan Miller, the head of the Scottish human rights commission, said there were still significant doubts about the guilt of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi after an independent investigation uncovered new evidence that undermined the conviction.

Miller told The Guardian that the UK government should release a secret intelligence report that the Scottish criminal cases review commission said could – on its own – have been enough to have freed Megrahi on appeal. It was withheld at his trial.

The document is believed to cast serious doubts on prosecution claims that Megrahi used a specific Swiss timer for the bomb. The release of the document was banned in 2008 by David Miliband, the then foreign secretary, leading to a lengthy legal battle by Megrahi's lawyers which ended when the Libyan abandoned his appeal because of his terminal cancer. (...)

Miller said the row over Megrahi's medical status was an "undignified and unhelpful distraction" from the more important issue of addressing unresolved questions about his guilt.

It has emerged that Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky are among the signatories of a petition calling for an inquiry into the case.

[The list of signatories can be seen here. Kate Adie has just written to Justice for Megrahi asking that her name be added to the list.

Unsurprisingly, the Tory-supporting Telegraph website is running an editorial headed "Lockerbie bomber: MacAskill should resign". The Tories have minimal electoral support in Scotland.]

1 comment:

  1. MISSION LOCKERBIE:

    The Lockerbie-Judgement is a Scottish Miscarriage of Justice!

    Please Secretary of Justice Kenny MacAskill & Co supports the truth and opens the 800 secretly documents of the Scottish Criminal Cases Reappeal Commission (SCCRC) then it becomes calm around Mr. Al-Megrahi and Libya.

    Non-disclosure of the document "under national security"...

    As predicted the decision of the Lord Justice General on the 7 of March 2008 definitely not to open the document "under national security" to Megrahi’s defence will be used by the defence as a strong argument for the release of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi. The suppression of exonerating evidence for reasons of national security violates civil and human rights of the defendant and must be considered as a miscarriage of justice.

    The Lord Justice General’s decision to keep the secret document (received the 13th of September 1996) under closure indicates again very clearly that the whole process against Megrahi and Libya was from the very beginning a political process and not a fair criminal trial!

    Why the manipulated MST-13 timer fragment plays such an important role in the "Lockerbie-scandal"?
    The prosecution was already in possession of at least one MST-13 timer before the timer fragment was allegedly found in the collar of a T-shirt at the site of Lockerbie. This manipulated MST-13timer fragment was used to set up the wrong trace to incriminate Libya and put heavy economical sanctions (embargo*) on Libya (1993). Then Mr Abdelbaset al Megrahi were found as scape-goat and indicted. For Megrahi's conviction the Malta-bombing-suitcase theorie was invented (2001).

    by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd., Switzerland
    URL: www.lockerbie.ch

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