Dereliction of duty

[What follows is the text of a letter sent on Saturday by Dr Jim Swire to the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC:]

9th February 2013

Dear Lord Advocate,

With the publication almost a year ago of the book Megrahi: You are my Jury, it became public knowledge that there is scientific proof that the fragment of circuit board led in evidence at Zeist and known as PT35b although mimicking circuit boards owned by Libya, could never have come from any such board.

This circuit board fragment was the crucial link at trial, suggesting that the bomb could have come from Malta, since it represented a fragment from a long running timer.

I am horrified to hear this week that Urs Bonfadelli (Thuring’s production manager and maker of the MEBO boards), Dr Chris McArdle and Dr Jess Cawley, the three experts most involved in defining the significance of the discrepancy over the metallurgy of PT35b have never been approached by the Crown Office or the Dumfries and Galloway police in connection with this devastating discovery during the whole of the time since publication of Mr Ashton’s book.

I must therefore ask that you will immediately launch an inquiry into all matters surrounding PT35b, its origin, and its discovery inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag.

It is, Sir, now over 24 years since my daughter Flora was murdered at Lockerbie. As her father I have a right to know who murdered her and why her life was not protected. Such lethargy as this is intolerable.

Adherence to the Zeist verdict, in the face of the immediate criticisms of the UN’s special observer Professor Hans Koechler, and those of Professor Robert Black QC, and many others, along with the SCCRC findings, and now this metallurgical finding, while at the same time refusing to investigate all these apparently well supported allegations would in the event that those allegations are found to be justified, be seen as dereliction of the duty of the Crown Office to deliver timely justice. Effectively it would also amount to protection for the real perpetrators.

May I remind you of these words often attributed to philosopher Edmund Burke:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

I request therefore that you immediately commence a credible investigation, into all these matters, specifically including the circuit board fragment PT35b, its origin, and its finding inside a Dumfries and Galloway police evidence bag, without any further delay.

Further, in view of the extraordinary public statement made by the Crown Office concerning the 'allegations of criminality', lodged by the group known as JFM, before even receiving their supporting evidence, and accusing them of being fantasist conspiracy theorists, I feel that this letter should be made publicly available at once. I have therefore copied it elsewhere.

I am proud simply to be involved in a search for the truth, concerning my daughter’s murder, and not in any attempt to denigrate others in the process.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Jim Swire