[This is the headline over a report published this evening on the STV News website. It reads in part:]
The former Labour MP told an audience in Edinburgh that the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing was innocent.
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is not guilty, veteran politician Tam Dalyell has claimed.
Speaking three days before the second anniversary of Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, Mr Dalyell also repeated his claim that former prime minister Margaret Thatcher personally dismissed calls for a public inquiry into the bombing.
The former MP told an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival that Megrahi "is not guilty as charged".
He said: "The people who did it were the gangs of [Ahmed] Jibril and Abu Nidal from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC).
"One of the reasons why the commission (The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission) said the verdict wasn't safe was the matter of the bill of £10m which was paid into the coffers of the PFLP-GC on December 23 1988, two days after Lockerbie."
The SCCRC referred Megrahi's conviction back to the High Court in 2007, but the appeal was subsequently dropped to clear the way for his compassionate release.
However, calls persist for a public inquiry, with Holyrood's Justice Committee preparing to consider a petition on the matter by the Justice For Megrahi group, led my Jim Swire whose daughter Flora died in the bombing.
However, Mr Dalyell claimed that Mrs Thatcher personally rejected earlier calls for an inquiry.
He said: "I asked her why, across 800 pages of her autobiography, that she didn't mention Lockerbie once.
"And she said: 'I didn't know about it...I don't know exactly what happened, and I don't write about things that I don't know about'."
He added: "It was clear by that time that she had been told by the Americans that they did not want a public inquiry.
"And you will remember that Jim Swire and John Mosey, the relatives, had gone to Cecil Parkinson, the Transport Secretary, who agreed that there should be a public inquiry.
"However, he came back rather sheepishly and said: 'I'm afraid my colleagues don't agree'.
"But there was only one colleague, and she didn't agree."
Tam Dalyell said: "The people who did it were the gangs of [Ahmed] Jibril and Abu Nidal from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC)."
ReplyDeleteTam Dalyell is right to say that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is not guilty of the crime of Lockerbie.
But where is Mr Dalyell's evidence to implicate Ahmed Jibril, Abu Nidal or the PFLP-GC?
MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2011, doc.nr.7011.rtf. (google translation, german/english):
ReplyDeleteSome officials from Scotland and the United Kingdom have not only the knowledge that the libyan official Abdelbaset Al Megrahi and Libya, with the "Pan Am 103 bombing" have nothing to do (not guilty) --- but still kept of secret Fakts absolutely know --- not with the "Pan Am 103-attack" involved could be !
+++
Einige Offizielle von Scotland und UK haben nicht nur das Wissen, dass der libysche Offizielle Abdelbaset Al Megrahi und Libyen, mit dem "PanAm 103 Bombing" nichts zu tun haben (nicht schuldig) --- sondern aus noch geheim gehaltenen Fakts wissen--- dass sie nicht am "PanAm 103- Attentat" beteiligt sein konnten !
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch
A book festival? That would have been an appropriate place to ask Tam Dalyell what has become known as the 'West Lothian question': How do you spend £18K on book shelves for a castle in West Lothian?
ReplyDeleteMaybe his answer will be, 'to err is human, to forgive is Jim Devine.'
ReplyDelete