[This is the headline over a report on the Herald Scotland website. It reads as follows:]
Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi could face trial over the Lockerbie bombing, Scotland’s top law officer has claimed.
Only Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was ever convicted, but Scotland’s new Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, has said if the Crown Office obtains “sufficient, credible and reliable evidence of other people’s involvement in the atrocity, we will seek to prosecute them” and that he would lobby for any trial to take place in Scotland.
Former Libyan justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil has claimed Gaddafi ordered the attack on Pan Am flight 103, killing 270 people, and that Megrahi had threatened to expose him unless his release from jail in Scotland was secured.
Mr Mulholland said: “There are opportunities arising from events in Libya and the Crown stands ready. We monitor closely events in Libya to see if anyone with information about the Lockerbie atrocity comes forth and we will act on that.”
He added that it would be “naive in the extreme” to think Megrahi acted alone.
Mr Mulholland said he had not discussed any possible trial location with American officials and his view that it should take place in Scotland puts him at odds with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who wants Gaddafi to appear before the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “A realistic case should be built before any grandstanding from the Lord Advocate.”
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing and who wants the verdict against Megrahi re-examined, cast doubt on the value of a trial held under Scots Law.
He said after the mishandling of evidence involving one of the key witnesses in the case, Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, he did not think “Scottish justice should claim that it is valid to be used for a trial of anybody in this case”.
A Crown Office spokeswoman said: “Given the current events in Libya the Crown stands ready to investigate any new leads.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Megrahi was convicted with others for the Lockerbie bombing and whoever those others are, they should not escape justice.”
[A similar report on The Scotsman website can be read here. Dr Jim Swire is quoted as follows:]
"In view of Scotland having tolerated knowledge, in the public domain for years, that there are very serious faults in the verdict against the one Libyan who was convicted of the atrocity, it would be extremely unwise to submit Colonel Gaddafi or anyone else to Scottish justice."
Ye really couldnae make it up.
ReplyDeleteMISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.2001.rtf. (google translation, german/english):
ReplyDeleteScotland's new Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland should study first the still unopened Scottish Criminal Cases Reappeal Commission files (SCCRC) and the document under National Security (PII), before he falls in of the lies of former Libyan justice minister, currently "Rebel Minister" Mustafa Abdel-Jalil...
For example: In a meeting with me and Abdel-Galil subject the PanAm 103- and UTA 772 aircrash --- for Libya exculpatory evidence he would not accept.
Worked Defector Abdel-Jalil sins 2009, against Seif El Islam and the Gadhafi regime ?
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd Telecommunication Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch
It escapes me why Mr Mulholland needs "sufficient, credible and reliable evidence" to prosecute others for the Lockerbie case. They didn't need this to convict Mr Megrahi and indeed they had virtually no evidence at all to prosecute Mr Fhimah!
ReplyDeleteI thought Steven Raeburn made a very interesting point on the Good Morning Scotland programme about this hauling in of Gaddafi. He pointed out that Libya, as a country, had cooperated fully during UN negotiation requirements in areas like compensation to be paid out to victims' families. He stressed that the UN had led those negotiations and deals were agreed and done.
ReplyDeleteThe Duffer outdoing the Dame in the drivel stakes: Sack him and gut the whole apparatus.
ReplyDeleteMISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc. nr.1203.rtf. (google translation, german/english):
ReplyDeleteIt can be shown that NATO and its military pilots have injured and killed many innocent humans of the Libyan people and foreigners, for that reason immediately, the UN must give the NATO, also the flight ban over Libya, pursuant to resolution 1973 !
Whether INTENTIONALLY or ACCIDENTALLY by NATO Bombing raids people go injured or go to death is no difference.
If NATO is not able to guarantee, bombing and destroy only "war hardware", has UN obligation to stop immediately, this horrible "WORK OF THE DEVIL" by NATO pilots !
Finally, the civil war is a inside "Libyan Matter"; Libya threatened no NATO country and has nothing to do with the bomb attack on 'PanAm 103' over Lockerbie.
It is hoped that the NATO pilots and their commander at the appropriate time also stand before the International Court of Justice...
***
Es ist nachweisbar, dass die NATO durch ihre Militär Piloten viele unschuldige Menschen der Libyschen Bevölkerung und Ausländer tötete und verletzte, deshalb müsste von UN sofort auch für die NATO das Flugverbot über Libyen, nach Resolution 1973 ausgesprochen werden !
Ob bei den Bombardements VORSÄTZLICH oder ZUFÄLLIG Menschen zu Tode kommen oder verletzt werden darf kein Unterschied gemacht werden !
Wenn die Nato nicht fähig ist und garantieren kann, nur "Kriegs-Hardware" zu-zerstören, muss dieses abscheuliche "TEUFELS-WERK" der NATO Piloten, durch die UN sofort GESTOPT werden !
Schlussendlich ist der Bürgerkrieg eine "libysche Angelegenheit"; Libyen bedrohte kein Nato-Land und hat nichts mit dem Bomben-Attentat auf 'PanAm 103' über Lockerbie zutun...
Es ist zu hoffen, dass die NATO Piloten und deren "Commander" zur gegebenen Zeit ebenfalls vor den Internationalen Gerichtshof stehen...
by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch
ebol said: "If NATO is not able to guarantee, bombing and destroy only "war hardware", has UN obligation to stop immediately, this horrible "WORK OF THE DEVIL" by NATO pilots !"
ReplyDeleteSurely, "Herr Pot", you are calling der wasserkocher schwarz?
Did David actually say: The Duffer [Frank Mulholland] outdoing the Dame [Elish Angiolini] in the drivel stakes: Sack him and gut the whole apparatus [Crown Office]?
ReplyDeleteThat is certainly what I understood him to say, and his comment is still there to confirm it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to contradict him either.
Nor would I
ReplyDeleteIt´s all bullshit.
ReplyDeleteOr is there really a some clever way to prosecute Gaddafi without getting the world press to print all the nasty stuff reg. Al-Megrahi's conviction?
If not, he'll never stand trial for that case, but be executed before this issue comes up.
We saw the same "trick" used in the Saddam Hussein trial, where the "big crime", the 1988 Halabja poison gas attack, was never turned by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. The accusation was riddled with problems, one of them being the statement from Pelletiere, CIA's senior political analyst in Iraq, where USA at the time found it convenient to blame Iran, not Iraq for the attacks.
Unfortunately the evil empire would never be stupid enough to get even close to a situation where Lockerbie trial details would see the inside of a court.
SFM
- - -
"...immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.
The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent — that is, a cyanide-based gas — which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.
"
Pelletiere
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1148.htm