Architect of Lockerbie trial attacks guilty verdict

[This is the headline over a report by Jenny Booth that was published in The Sunday Telegraph on this date in 2001. It reads as follows:]

The Scots law professor who masterminded the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands has launched a scathing attack on the judges for finding the defendant guilty on "very, very weak" evidence.

Professor Robert Black described the decision by three Scottish judges to convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a Libyan secret serviceman, of the murder of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie as "astonishing". He warned that the bomber stands a better-than-average chance of being acquitted on appeal.

Professor Black, a former judge with 13 years' experience and Scotland's leading expert on criminal procedure and evidence, said that in his view the Crown case had failed to comply with strict Scottish legal rules - tougher than English law - that evidence be corroborated.

Professor Black said: "I thought this was a very, very weak circumstantial case. I am absolutely astounded, astonished. I was extremely reluctant to believe that any Scottish judge would convict anyone, even a Libyan, on the basis of such evidence." Professor Black's reservations will fuel the concerns of bereaved families that, despite the criminal trial, the truth is yet to emerge about the

Lockerbie bombing.

At a hushed press conference in London the day after the verdict, Martin Cadman, whose son Bill died in the bombing, said: "We have our doubts about the guilt of Megrahi and that will have to remain the subject of any appeal to come. The appeal will hold uup for another year or so before we can have an inquiry into the truth of who was responsible and what the motive was."

The chief spokesman for the families, Dr Jim Swire, a former army explosives expert, produced a bomb timer to illustrate why he found it hard to believe the Crown's version of events. He said that the timing of the explosion, 38 minutes after the aircraft took off from Heathrow and while the jet was still over land, made the bomb more likely to have been detonated by a crude pressure-activated timer, such as those used by the Palestinian terror group operating
in Germany under the command of Ahmed Jibril, than by a sophisticated 999-hour electronic timer of the type bought by Libyan secret services from MeBo, a Swiss arms firm.

Professor Black's concerns are likely to be seized upon by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to back claims of Libya's innocence of the bombing.  Professor Black devised the unique format of the Lockerbie trial, which was held in a neutral country without a jury, and campaigned alongside the bereaved families for its acceptance by Libya, America and Britain.

Megrahi has a further 11 days to lodge an appeal, which would probably be heard in the same courtroom in Camp Zeist, in front of a bench of five judges, over about two weeks in late summer. The appeal bench is expected to be chaired by Lord Cullen, Scotland's second most senior judge. Under ordinary circumstances, barely a handful of appeals against conviction ever succeed in the Scottish courts, but Professor Black said that the unique circumstances of
the trial meant that Megrahi stood a better chance.