Scottish newspapers on Megrahi campaign launch

The Scottish "heavy" daily newspapers have good coverage of yesterday's launch of the Justice for Megrahi campaign.

The Scotsman concentrates on the experiences of the parish priest of Lockerbie at the time of the disaster, Father Pat Keegans. The report reads in part:

'Father Patrick Keegan, 62, said he believed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was innocent and should be freed on compassionate grounds before an appeal against his conviction.

'"I wrote to Mr Megrahi offering him my support, telling him that I was convinced he was innocent, and that I would willingly offer support to him and his family," said Fr Keegan, who was living in Lockerbie at the time of the bombing, just yards from where a wing section of the Pan Am flight crashed in 1988.

'Describing the Libyan and his family as "victims" of the bombing, Fr Keegan said he believed there had been a mellowing of opinion, even among those previously convinced of his guilt.'

The comments from members of the public that follow the story are also well worth reading.

Lucy Adams in The Herald has an article headed "Priest claims police interference in aftermath of Lockerbie bomb". It reads in part:

'As the Justice For Megrahi campaign was launched yesterday, Father Patrick Keegan, the priest in Lockerbie at the time, revealed that he had been visited by police during the inquiry and asked to keep to the official line - that Libya was responsible. (...)

'"I really became convinced of his innocence when the whole thrust of the case shifted from Syria and Iran to Libya alone. Interference in my own life by the investigation team convinced me.

'"A police officer asked to come along and speak to me. I listened to him for quite a while and then I said: Have you come here to ask me to be silent? He said that the point was that when you speak people listen and we would appreciate it if you could follow our line of Libya alone.

'"I complained to the Lord Advocate about it at the time and got a very bland response. The very fact that they interfered and took the trouble to come to talk to me made up my mind that I was on the right track. Other people had similar experiences."'

[Note to editors: the gentleman's name is Father Patrick Keegans.

The Press and Journal has a good account by Joe Quinn. The BBC News website's report of the launch can be read here.]

Priest who witnessed aftermath of Lockerbie backs Megrahi release

A Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the aftermath of the Lockerbie bombing today called for the release of the man convicted for it.

Father Patrick Keegans said Libyan national Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was innocent of the crime and also deserved release on compassionate grounds. (...)

Fr Keegans told a Glasgow press conference: "I'm here today because of my conscience."

He said he had not so far sought publicity but had been moved this week by newspaper accounts of Megrahi's wife and family.

They are staying in Glasgow in order to be able to visit him in prison.

"My conscience has moved so much over the past two days that I wrote to Mr Megrahi offering him my support, telling him that I was convinced he is innocent and that I would willingly offer support to him and his family," said the priest.

Fr Keegans said that that view put him at odds with friends in the US - many of whom were "convinced" of the Libyan's guilt.

"If I was convinced of Mr Megrahi's guilt, I would not be here today," he said.

"I'm here today because of his human plight, I'm here because I believe Scotland is a compassionate and a fair country.

"I also believe that justice for Mr Megrahi will equal justice for the families because the full truth of Lockerbie has never been revealed."

Fr Keegans, who now lives in Ayr, was a priest in Lockerbie at the time of the bombing.

[From The Herald's report of today's press conference to mark the launch of the Justice for Megrahi campaign. The full report can be read here.]

Justice for Megrahi campaign

A campaign to free the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing will be launched today.

The "Justice for Megrahi" campaign will seek to generate support for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi from prison on grounds of compassion.

The 56-year-old, who was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am 103, which killed 259 passengers and crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie, on 21 December 1988, was diagnosed with "advanced state" prostate cancer in September.

A bid by his lawyers to release the Libyan on bail pending an appeal hearing was rejected by judges last month.

Robert Black, a professor of law at Edinburgh University who was instrumental in setting up Megrahi's trial under Scots Law at a specially-constructed court in the Netherlands, and Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the bombing, are among those behind the new campaign.

[From today's edition of The Scotsman. Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm covers the launch of the campaign here. The magazine's editor, Steven Raeburn, has this to say:

"There is one problem that requires moral conscience, not resources, to tackle. Not only does Scotland imprison children to a disproportionate degree, we have also this month condemned a man -who has been officially adjudged to be the possible victim of a miscarriage of justice- to rot in a foreign jail until he dies. A literal death sentence.

"Hopefully compassion and morality are not being sacrificed on the altar of vengeance, or worse, to defer something as inconsequential as shame and embarrassment. It is in our own control to act with more nobility than this."

The campaign's website, which at present consists of little more than a statement of the campaign's aims and objectives and a list of committee members, is to be found at http://www.justiceformegrahi.com.]

Interviews with Abdelbaset Megrahi's children

The Herald today prints interviews with Abdelbaset Megrahi's children, conducted by Lucy Adams at the family's Scottish home in Newton Mearns. The articles are entitled ‘I don’t feel angry, just so sad. My one wish is that my father comes home' and "Megrahi’s daughter: ‘I want to be a lawyer to help people like my dad'".

A number of other newspapers, including the Scottish tabloid, the Daily Record, have picked up The Herald's exclusive interviews. The letters page of The Scotsman has a letter headed "Let Megrahi go free".

Interview with Mrs Megrahi

Today's issue of The Herald runs a series of interviews in which Mrs Aisha Megrahi talks to Lucy Adams about how her family has been affected by her husband's imprisonment and the recent diagnosis of untreatable prostate cancer. The interviews are headed "Megrahi wife's plea: Set my husband free to die"; "'This illness is the hardest thing we have had to bear'"; and "I had nothing to do with it and the fight for justice continues".

In the print edition of the newspaper (but not the internet edition) the articles are accompanied by photographs of Mrs Megrahi taken at the family's house in Newton Mearns.

A further article by Damien Henderson describes memorial events that are planned for the twentieth anniversary of the Lockerbie disaster and outlines the views of some US and UK relatives and Lockerbie inhabitants towards Mr Megrahi and his conviction.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) The Herald is going to run interviews with Mr Megrahi's children. The trailer in today's paper reads: "The family life of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. In their first interview, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's five children share emotional details of having to grow up while their father was in a Scottish prison and tell how they made Scotland their home."

TV programme recreates the final moments of flight over Lockerbie

The last moments of the Pan Am jet which crashed on to Lockerbie in a ball of flames killing 270 people will be relived on television tonight for the first time.

Modern technology has allowed researchers to reconstruct how the packed Boeing 747 was blown apart by a bomb at 31,000ft over the Scottish town.

Viewers will see the aircraft exploding and its nose cone severed from the fuselage. Seconds later the main cabin is torn apart, sending the wings spiralling to the ground.

The reconstruction ends with terrifying computer- generated scenes of the fireball smashing into Lockerbie with the church steeple clearly visible among the flames. (...)

Air Crash Investigation: Lockerbie, which will be shown on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm, will also include some television footage from the disaster and feature eyewitness accounts.

[From today's issue of The Herald. The full article can be read here. The Scotsman's report can be read here. From the trailer and the written accounts that I have seen, it appears that the programme swallows, hook line and sinker, the official US and UK version of events. Richard Marquise and FBI forensic science "expert" Thomas Thurman feature. Embarrassment all round when Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction is -- rightly -- quashed.]

Silent walk for justice

Links to the various media reports on the silent walk for justice that took place in Edinburgh yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, and in which Abdelbaset Megrahi's wife and four of his children participated, can be found here.

An anniversary

On December 4th [1991] the last Pan Am aircraft landed at Miami International from Barbados. Pan Am which had been operating under Chapter 11 [a form of bankruptcy protection] ceased operations after selling much of its operations earlier in the year to Delta Airlines. Pan Am which had been struggling for years was unable to recover from the bombing of a 747 over Lockerbie Scotland in 1988.

[From History Central.]

Forthcoming Lockerbie book

An' then the world came tae oor doorstep: Lockerbie Lives and Stories
by Jill S Haldane, with a foreword by Robert Black.

Product Description
The Lockerbie Stories tell of the absolute incomprehension of something as alien as hunks of aeroplane and associated detritus falling through the roof of the home from aerospace above, penetrating the security of the family and exposing the self to chaos and despair, inverting life's experience from relatively familiar to discrete. The grief and trauma that followed, dealing with veil of death and destruction as victims and their belongings rained on homes, gardens and streets, together with the shock and upset involved in evacuation from your home and disruption of your routine. The frustrating inability to communicate with family and friends out with the community; the violation of all pre-conceived representations of Christmas and the descending swarm of strangers. To see your wee space on the planet, on the screen and beamed to innumerable other homes across the world. The silence then the noise: the sound of people and busyness was deafening to the quietude of the town and the echo reverberated for a few years. This is not a comparative study of how the Lockerbie bombing compares to any other disaster, natural or premeditated. By nature, disasters are variously horrific for the people directly and indirectly involved.

The book consists of accounts by Lockerbie indwellers of their experiences on 21 December 1988 and the years that followed.

Product Details
Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: The Grimsay Press (December 19, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1845300637
ISBN-13: 978-1845300630
List price: £16.95/US$32.50
Product dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
Shipping weight: 1.2 pounds

[Details taken from Amazon.com. There is now an entry for the book on Amazon.co.uk]

Megrahi’s wife to join vigil

The wife of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is planning to take part in a silent vigil outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday aimed at highlighting alleged miscarriages of justice.

Aisha al Megrahi plans to join a group of aggrieved relatives on a silent walk down the Royal Mile to Holyrood, where organisers have asked to meet with Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, to present information about several different cases.

Relatives plan to carry photographs of those they believe have suffered a miscarriage of justice, including Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who is serving a life sentence in Greenock prison with a minimum term of 27 years for the bombing of PanAm flight 103 in 1988, which led to the deaths of 270 people.

Megrahi, 56, is suffering from terminal prostate cancer which has spread to other parts of his body and may not have long to live.

Last month, the court of criminal appeal refused to grant him interim liberation before his appeal next year. The defence claims there is a "compelling case" for releasing him on bail, but the three judges turned down the request.

Mrs Megrahi, who has been living in Libya since 2005, has flown to Scotland to visit her husband in prison.

Although she has generally shied away from media attention, she recently criticised the way her husband has been treated.

She told a newspaper in Tripoli: "Hospitals in Scotland refused to take him because of the increased security involved in transferring him, especially the use of helicopters."

Megrahi, who has consistently denied any involvement in the bombing, said he was "very distressed" by the ruling and vowed that the fight to clear his name would continue after his death if necessary.

He lost an appeal in 2002, but was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time on six different grounds. The fresh appeal is due to be heard next year.

[From an article by Lucy Adams in today's issue of The Herald. The full text can be read here. The procession is to assemble in Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh at 3pm on Thursday.]

A modest proposal

The appellant’s written Grounds of Appeal are not a public document. It follows that while the grounds are being discussed in court, those sitting in the public benches find it very difficult to follow the proceedings. These persons include representatives of the press, law students, humble bloggers and, by far the most important, relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster. These last have expressed to me the deep sense of exclusion that they feel when numbered grounds of appeal are discussed while they themselves are in complete ignorance of what issues these numbered grounds relate to.

I appreciate that the Grounds of Appeal are a very lengthy document and contain legal argument as well as mere bald specification of appeal points. If it is thought undesirable that the document in this form be in the public domain, would it not be possible for a summary (perhaps confined to the headings and sub-headings of the various grounds) to be made public? This would be greatly appreciated by the relatives and would be of immense value to the press and to bloggers in their mission to provide accurate and useful information and commentary on the proceedings.

I respectfully invite the court and the parties to give consideration to this proposal.

Ninth (public) procedural hearing: second day (cont’d)

The appellant’s legal team and the Advocate General (representing the UK Government) had been unable to agree the whole terms of a protocol governing the role and functions of a special (security-vetted) counsel to protect the interests of the appellant in relation to the document(s) in respect of which PII has been asserted. In particular, the appellant’s view was that, while the special advocate was to be appointed by the court, the appellant should be allowed to nominate him or her. The Advocate General, Lord Davidson of Glen Clova QC, appearing in person, took the view that while the appellant should be entitled to make representations specifying objections to the court’s choice, he should have no right to suggest who that counsel should be.

The other main divergence of view related to what relations should exist between the special counsel once appointed and the appellant’s regular legal team. The Advocate General contended that, after the special counsel had been given access to the document(s), there should be no contact between him or her and the appellant’s lawyers (or indeed between him or her and anyone other than the court and the Advocate General). Ms Scott contended that the recognised principles applicable in England to special counsel, namely “minimum derogation” from the normal rights of an accused person or appellant and “maximum participation” of the appellant’s chosen legal representatives should apply and that the special counsel, so long as he or she did not divulge the contents of the document(s) in respect of which PII was asserted, should be free to consult whomever he or she thought might be helpful in the performance of his/her function of protecting the interests of the appellant.

The court indicated that, after having considered the submissions of the parties, it would draft a protocol which would settle these issues of principle. The parties, at a hearing yet to be fixed, would be given an opportunity to make representations on matters of detail, but not on the principles enshrined therein.

The Reuters report of the proceedings can be read here.

Ninth (public) procedural hearing: second day

The High Court this morning announced its decisions on the matters ventilated at yesterday’s hearing.

The court accepted the prioritisation of grounds of appeal advanced by the appellant, and ordered a four-week hearing on grounds 1 and 2 (unreasonableness, on the evidence, of the verdict) to be held in the spring of 2009. Written notes of argument are to be lodged by the appellant six weeks before the date eventually fixed and by the Crown four weeks before. As suggested by Maggie Scott QC for the appellant, the next chapter to be argued will be those parts of ground of appeal 3 (fairness of the trial) that relate to Tony Gauci. The Crown was ordered to provide written answers to this ground of appeal (directed particularly to the appellant’s assertions of fact) within eight weeks from today. The court will then decide how long a hearing will need to be allocated and when that hearing should take place.

The court accepted undertakings from the Crown to hand over to the appellant’s legal team the bulk of the witness statements by 12 December. In respect of those few assessed by the Crown possibly to give rise to public interest immunity issues, the Crown would submit them as soon as possible to the Advocate General who would by 23 January 2009 determine which, if any, gave rise to national security or international relations concerns which the court would require to adjudicate upon. All the rest would be handed over to the appellant.

The Crown undertook to make available to the appellant within eight weeks the UK previous conviction information relating to witnesses. In respect of non-UK convictions, the Crown would use its best endeavours to secure the information from the relevant foreign countries.

The court invited the former legal representatives of the appellant to comment on the grounds of appeal relating to defective representation at the trial and requested them to supply any relevant documentation not already handed over to the appellant’s present legal team.

Argument is continuing on a protocol governing the role of the “special advocate” to be appointed in relation to the mystery document in respect of which the UK Foreign Secretary has asserted public interest immunity.

Low key plans for bombing anniversary

Details have been released of the Lockerbie air disaster 20th year memorial events which will take place next month.

A series of public commemorations are planned in locations around the town on Sunday December 21 but they are going to be low key, in accordance with the wishes of the community.

The programme includes wreath laying at Dryfesdale Cemetery starting at 2 pm that afternoon with readings by the Lord Lieutenant and the US consul.

Free buses will run between the town hall and the cemetery for anyone wishing to attend.

There will also be an ecumenical service at Dryfesdale Church and a vigil at Tundergarth Church between 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm that night .

They have been timed to coincide with the actual time that Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.

Furthermore, the Dryfesdale Lodge Visitors’ Centre and Lockerbie Town Hall lesser hall will be open all day as designated ‘places to remember’ for visitors and townsfolk to attend and refreshments will be served in the town hall all day.

Meanwhile, two special TV programmes will be aired next month to mark the 20th anniversary.

The two-part Living Lockerbie will be shown on Border TV on December 4 and 11.

It has been made by filmmaker John Wallace, who was a 14-year-old pupil at Lockerbie Academy at the time of the disaster.

The first, entitled “Living Lockerbie: the media” examines the impact the arrival of journalists and news crews from around the world had on an already shocked community.

John said: “There were concerns raised at the time about how some of the media behaved in and around Lockerbie.

“What I didn’t know about was the groundbreaking work that went on to train local people to deal with reporters.”

He added: “It wasn’t pleasant for anyone who had to deal with that kind of attention, but lessons were learned and it did help to improve how the media behave in disaster situations.”

The second programme looks at some of the positive memorials that have been created over the last two decades to honour those who died.

John himself benefited from the scholarship programme, now in its 19th year, set up between Lockerbie and Syracuse University.

And 20 years on, victims’ relatives are still putting their hands in their pockets to support forward-looking projects, creating new memorials to their loved ones.

“I’ve been bowled over by the generosity of spirit I’ve found among people affected by the disaster -- there’s a real and ongoing effort to make good things come out of the tragedy,” he said.

“Knowing that, in the face of such a terrible loss, people can find the strength to try and build bridges like that -- it really gives you hope for the future.”

[From the Annandale Herald, Lockerbie's weekly local newspaper. Further details can be found in this article from another local newspaper, the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.]

Ninth (public) procedural hearing: first day

Today’s lengthy procedural hearing was taken up with (a) submissions on the appellant’s most recent petition for disclosure of material in the hands of the Crown; and (b) case management and timetabling.

As regards (a), the material in question is mainly the pre-trial witness statements of the more than 1100 witnesses who featured on the Crown’s list at the Zeist trial. The appellant’s lawyers claim that upwards of 800 of these statements have not yet been handed over. The Crown stated today that it was willing to do so, subject to any public interest immunity issues that might be raised by the Advocate General on behalf of the United Kingdom Government. The Advocate General’s counsel, Raymond Doherty QC, indicated that in the vast majority of cases there was unlikely to be any PII concern and that these statements could be handed over by the Crown within fourteen days. In respect of any few statements in respect of which the UK Government’s assessment was that PII issues arose, the matter would have to return to the court.

As regards (b) Maggie Scott QC for Megrahi asked that the Crown be ordered to answer in writing the appellant’s detailed grounds of appeal. This would serve the useful purpose of clarifying the issues of fact and law on which there was genuine dispute between the parties and of identifying the factual and legal issues on which the parties were at one. The Crown responded that this was not normal Scottish practice and questioned whether it would serve any beneficial function.

The appellant’s legal team had been asked for this hearing to prioritise their grounds of appeal and to indicate the order in which the court should be asked to address them. Ms Scott stated that the appellant wished first consideration to be given to grounds of appeal 1 and 2 relating to the reasonableness of the verdict (ie whether any reasonable tribunal, on the evidence led, could have convicted Megrahi). She stated that the appellant’s legal team would be in a position to argue these grounds in April 2009 and that she anticipated that perhaps four weeks of court time would be required. The next chapter to be addressed should be those portions of ground of appeal 3 relating to the evidence of the Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci. Ms Scott tentatively suggested that this section of the hearing might be scheduled for July 2009 and that as much as eight weeks might be required.

Ms Scott also requested the court at this stage to forward the grounds of appeal to the lawyers who represented Mr Megrahi at the original trial, in order to give them an opportunity, if so minded, to respond to the issues raised and the criticisms made of them in ground of appeal 4 relating to defective or inadequate representation.

The Crown did not indicate any strong views on these prioritising and timetabling matters. The one particularly interesting thing that Ronnie Clancy QC for the Crown disclosed was that, as of today, the Crown did not concede that even if Tony Gauci’s evidence were wholly discredited there remained insufficient evidence to justify the conviction of Megrahi. This is a view that few legal observers share.

The hearing was continued until tomorrow (Friday). It is to be expected that the court will then issue its decision on most of the issues outlined above. The other matter to be dealt with tomorrow is the protocol governing relations between the appellant’s legal team and the special (security-vetted) advocate appointed to consider the mystery document(s) in respect of which the UK Foreign Secretary has already asserted public interest immunity and the non-disclosure of which formed one of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission’s grounds for holding that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred. It is possible that when these matters are discussed tomorrow, the court will have to go into closed session.

The report on the BBC News website can be read here. The Herald's report of the proceedings can be read here. It appears to be the only Scottish or UK newspaper to provide any coverage. Like the BBC, it concentrates on the application for the criminal records of witnesses to be disclosed. Trust the British media to focus on the peripheral and inessential!