Sunday 28 August 2011

I've no idea where 'friend' Megrahi is

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of the Sunday Express. It deals with the recent interview with Lamin Fhimah published in the Swedish newspaper Expressen. It adds nothing to Friday's post on this blog, except the following:]

The man cleared of the Lockerbie bombing yesterday broke his 10-year silence to admit he has no idea where his missing “friend” Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi has gone. (...)

Last night, Megrahi’s son Khaled posted on Facebook claiming his father has been moved to a relative’s house. (...)

[Fhimah] said: “When I was released and came home from Holland, I drove to a place where Gaddafi made a show out of it. We spoke nothing to each other. He welcomed me and nothing more.

“The only thing the regime did after they welcomed me was to confiscate my passport. I don’t know why, but they claimed that when the verdict against Megrahi was appealed I had to stay here in order to testify.” (...)

Labour claimed the SNP has “ignored” a law that allows a prisoner to be recalled if there is a “reversal or improvement” in their condition.

Party leader Iain Gray said: “If this piece of legislation had been enacted Megrahi could be back behind bars. It is yet another example of the SNP’s incompetence in this affair.”

However, a spokesman for Mr MacAskill said: “Al Megrahi was sent back to Libya following the due process of Scots Law because he was dying of terminal prostate cancer.

“He is dying of terminal prostate cancer, therefore by definition there has been no change in the medical conditions that led to his release.”

[Today's edition of Scotland on Sunday contains a long article by Dani Garavelli headlined Liberation of Libya opens way to Lockerbie truth which outlines some of the legal, political and practical difficulties standing in the way of either returning Megrahi to prison or holding further Lockerbie trials.]

1 comment:

  1. Don't know if you spotted this piece over at Scottish Review. Excerpt:

    "He [a journalist working for the BBC World Service in the Arabic department] assured me that everyone in government, everyone in the higher echelons of journalism, and certainly the American authorities, knew without a doubt that Libya had nothing to do with Lockerbie and that al-Megrahi had been a convenient patsy."

    http://www.scottishreview.net/JudithJaafar162.shtml

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