Blair challenged over claims Megrahi was 'excluded’ from Prisoner Transfer Agreement

[This is the headline over a report published yesterday evening on the Newsnet Scotland website.  It reads as follows (links omitted):]

Tony Blair’s version of events over the Prisoner Transfer Agreement he hatched with Colonel Gaddafi has been challenged after he claimed that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi had been “specifically excluded” from the secret deal.

The Scottish National Party has today accused the former Prime Minister of being “economical with the truth” after Mr Blair claimed in a New York Times interview that Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi was “specifically excluded” from the “prisoner transfer programme” when he left office. 

Asked about a series of visits he made to Libya in order to speak with the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi and whether he had been seeking the release of Megrahi the former Labour leader replied:

“This really is objectionable.  When I was British prime minister, when I left office, Megrahi was specifically excluded from the prisoner transfer program.  In any event he wasn’t released under that.”

Mr Blair added: “Everyone is always saying, “Didn’t the Libyans ever raise it.”  In fact they were always raising it, and I was always explaining the same thing to them which is there’s nothing that can be done about it.  You have to go to the Scottish executive, not the British government.”

In fact, the Prisoner Transfer Agreement was not in place when Mr Blair left office.  Correspondence between the Scottish and UK government’s indicate that a pledge from the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer to the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill in June 2007 that “any Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Libya could not cover Mr al-Megrahi” was never honoured.

A letter from Lord Chancellor Jack Straw in December 2007 subsequently confirmed that “in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom”, Megrahi would not be excluded.

Mr Straw wrote: “I had previously accepted the importance of the al-Megrahi issue to Scotland and said I would try to get an exclusion for him on the face of the agreement.  I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion.”

In all, the First Minister Alex Salmond and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill wrote to the UK Government on eight separate occasions – and as late as September 2008 – insisting that Megrahi should be excluded from the terms of the PTA.   However the UK Labour Government refused the requests because of trade and diplomatic factors with the Gaddafi regime.

Tony Blair’s claim that Mr Megrahi had been excluded from any PTA when he left office was further undermined when his former aide, who was with him at the time of the ‘Deal in the Desert’ John McTernan, claimed that al-Megrahi had indeed been part of the deal.

Speaking on Newsnight last summer, Mr McTernan said that the Libyan had been included in the deal in recognition of Gaddafi having given up nuclear weapons and that the British government would have been happy to see Megrahi sent back to Libya.

Commenting, SNP Westminster Leader and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Angus Robertson MP said: “Not for the first time, Tony Blair has been caught out being economical with the truth.  The reality is that the Scottish Government repeatedly called on the UK Labour Government to exclude Megrahi from the terms of the PTA, but they reneged on their pledge to do so.  It is inconceivable that it would have been any different had Tony Blair remained in office.

“The fact is – as we know from Sir Gus O’Donnell’s report – that the UK Labour Government did ‘all it could’ to facilitate Megrahi’s release for reasons of trade and diplomacy with the Gaddafi regime.

“Just as Tony Blair was incapable of telling the truth about the invasion of Iraq, he is being extremely economical with the truth about Labour’s hypocrisy over Megrahi.”

Controversy has always surrounded Mr Blair’s now notorious ‘Deal in the Desert’ with Gaddafi.  In 2007 there was anger after details of the secret deal was made public by the then newly elected First Minister Alex Salmond.

The First Minister’s exposing of the secret negotiations between the British government and the former Libyan dictator led to an infamous spat between Mr Salmond and the BBC presenter Kirsty Wark.  The BBC were subsequently forced to issue an apology.

[The Herald's report on the matter can be read here.]

23 years after Lockerbie, a father fights on for justice

[This is the heading over an article by David Benson published in today's edition of the Belfast Telegraph.  It reads as follows:]

My last visit to the Queen's Festival was in 1997 with my show Think No Evil of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams, and one might reasonably expect to be asked why a man best known for impersonating dead camp comedians should now be appearing in a drama of intense seriousness.

I was living in Edinburgh when the most deadly terrorist atrocity in post-war British history occurred. On December 21, 1988, I was working on the door of a nightclub earning £10-a-night when one of the bouncers wandered over and whispered that a Jumbo jet had gone down in the borders. Soon the city was buzzing with stories of devastation at the scene: the pretty, secluded border town of Lockerbie and the land for miles around strewn with the dead and their belongings, seat-belted corpses left for days in trees and on roofs or to be stepped over on garden paths.

Nearly 23 years later, the events surrounding that atrocity formed the basis of a one-man show that I wrote and performed at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe and which I am privileged to be bringing to the Queen's Festival for one performance. The man whose story I tell is one touched as cruelly by the crime as it is possible to be. Dr Jim Swire's daughter, Flora McDonald Margaret Swire, was on Pan Am 103 from Heathrow to JFK the night before her 24th birthday.

Just before Christmas such flights are usually at capacity, but Flora was one of the unlucky recipients of a stroke of fortune: this flight had a substantial number of late cancellations; she was able to get a ticket for it at the last minute and so set off to spend the Christmas in New York with her boyfriend, Hart. 

Just 38 minutes after take-off, a bomb went off in the hold and the aircraft was lost, along with its 259 passengers and crew. Eleven people in Lockerbie were killed as the aircraft hit the ground.

The events are still fresh in the minds of everyone who lived through them. I performed the show earlier this year in the towns of Dumfries and Langholm, close to the heart of the catastrophe, and heard testimony from eye-witnesses in the audience.

A woman described seeing the fuselage crash with its jets still screaming as she washed her dishes; and how their cat, in its terror, tore round the walls of the living room like a motorcycle on a wall of death. There has since been a trial, a man was convicted of the crime, and compensation was paid to victims' families by the recently-overthrown Libyan regime. 

So why is Jim Swire still fighting so doggedly in his 76th year and in defiance of many who have begged him to 'retire' and let his daughter rest in peace?

Because, in his view, justice has not been done. In fact, anyone who examines the events of the trial in the Netherlands will see that the prosecution case against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhima was laughable, a grotesque parade of paid witnesses, corrupt evidence and dodgy 'experts'.

Fhima was totally cleared of involvement and, since the prosecution case was built on the fantasy that the two accused had acted in concert, al-Megrahi should have been found not guilty, too. Instead, he was sentenced to 20 years in a Scottish jail, later increased to 27 years, all the time protesting his innocence. 

His release on 'compassionate' grounds was an opportunity for howls of manufactured outrage from politicians deeply relieved that the questions a second appeal would have raised would now, they hoped, never be asked. The findings of a three-year investigation by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which identified six major points suggesting a miscarriage of justice, would never be published and a largely compliant media would go on forever referring to al-Megrahi as the Lockerbie Bomber. 

But the controversy refuses to go away. A phony 'humanitarian' invasion of Libya is raging as I write, with defenceless civilians in Sirte and elsewhere, under siege by forces we are paying for, with the Lockerbie bombing persistently held up as part-justification for the carnage. 

In spite of the initial claims of Gaddafi regime members to have positive proof that he ordered the bombing, not a shred of evidence has been laid before our eyes. Meanwhile, Obama, Clinton and a nest of cynical senators in the USA repeatedly call for the dying al-Megrahi to be unhooked from his drips and oxygen mask to face a new, totally illegal trial in America, in spite of the fact that they accepted the verdict of the first. There is a special poignancy in bringing this play to a province whose people are no strangers to terrorism. To lose loved ones in criminal circumstances is to risk finding out how hard-hearted and cynical our guarantors of justice can be when the demands of truth run counter to the dark currents of Government business.

It cannot be easy for any politician to face a Jim Swire, or a Michael and Patsy Gallagher, or anyone motivated solely by finding the answer to the question: Who killed my beautiful child?

My play is an attempt to pay tribute to these reluctant, heroic campaigners and to show also what it costs them to pursue truth and justice, while retaining dignity, integrity and compassion - every virtue their tormentors lack.

Tony Blair: ‘They keep insinuating and I keep saying it’s not true’

[This is the headline over an item published today on The 6th Floor, a blog on the website of The New York Times. The author, Andrew Goldman, recently interviewed Tony Blair.  Here are a couple of the questions and answers:]

Q. The British press has been speculating a great deal about the fact that you visited Libya twice just weeks before the 2009 release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and that you had something to do with achieving his freedom.

A. This really is objectionable. When I was British prime minister, when I left office, Megrahi was specifically excluded from the prisoner transfer program. In any event he wasn’t released under that. Everyone is always saying, “Didn’t the Libyans ever raise it.” In fact they were always raising it, and I was always explaining the same thing to them which is there’s nothing that can be done about it. You have to go to the Scottish executive, not the British government.

Q. So you see this as just another example of the British press’s distortions about you?

A. It’s not all of the British press. It’s a section of it. Whenever you read about me in the British media you want to look at your sources very carefully because there are certain papers that just write this stuff the whole time that simply isn’t true. It’s just ridiculous.

[I dispute the accuracy of Mr Blair's first answer.  As I have said elsewhere:

"The memorandum of understanding regarding prisoner transfer that Tony Blair entered into in the course of the "deal in the desert" in May 2007, and which paved the way for the formal prisoner transfer agreement, was intended by both sides to lead to the rapid return of Mr Megrahi to his homeland. This was the clear understanding of Libyan officials involved in the negotiations and to whom I have spoken.

"It was only after the memorandum of understanding was concluded that [it belatedly sunk in] that the decision on repatriation of this particular prisoner was a matter not for Westminster and Whitehall but for the devolved Scottish Government in Edinburgh, and that government had just come into the hands of the Scottish National Party and so could no longer be expected supinely to follow the UK Labour Government's wishes. That was when the understanding between the UK Government and the Libyan Government started to unravel, to the considerable annoyance and distress of the Libyans, who had been led to believe that repatriation under the PTA was only months away."

This blogpost has now (Tuesday morning) been picked up by Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm in a news item headed Blair's account of Megrahi release challenged.]

Megrahi says in book he was framed

[This is the headline over a report on page 7 of today's Scottish edition of The Sunday Times. It does not feature on the newspaper's website. The report reads in part:]

The Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing claims he will produce evidence that will prove he was framed for Britain's worst terrorist atrocity.

A forthcoming book co-written by (...) Megrahi alleges that British and American authorities knew that a crucial piece of evidence linking Libya to the downing of Pan Am 103 was planted.

Documents obtained by his defence team are said to reveal that a fragment of electronic timer -- said to be part of the bomb -- was subjected to forensic testing before Megrahi's trial in 2000. The Libyan claims that the tests failed to detect explosive residues on the fragment but that this information was not revealed at his trial.

Sources close to Megrahi believe evidence of such tests would severely undermine the safety of his conviction.

At the Libyan's trial (...) forensic scientists testified that the fragment was part of a circuit board used as a trigger for the bomb. They stated it had not been tested for explosive residues. (...)

This evidence (...) helped to convict Megrahi. (...)

The Sunday Times has also seen unpublished British intelligence documents from 1989 revealing that the Scottish police were convinced that a barometric bomb -- triggered by altitude, not an electronic timer -- downed Pan Am 103.

Megrahi has been working with a British journalist on a book, the publication of which is imminent.

Sources close to the project said that in Megrahi: You Are My Jury, the Libyan reveals that forensic tests were conducted on the timer fragment. It suggests the fragment was not part of the Lockerbie bomb and adds weight to claims that it was "introduced" later to bolster the case against Megrahi. (...)

The timer fragment became a key plank in the case against Megrahi (...) It was claimed that months after the December 21 bombing (...) in 1988, a tiny piece of circuit board was found in a piece of clothing  about 25 miles away from Lockerbie. The prosecution successfully linked this fragment of circuit board, described as part of the bomb trigger, to Megrahi.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Megrahi sparked controversy after he was said to have claimed that the West had "exaggerated" his role in the Lockerbie bombing. It was seen as an admission that he played a role in the atrocity.

However, Arabic speakers said Megrahi actually described himself as "a very simple man" and that "the West made a great deal more of me".

The Crown Office has asked for an accurate translation of his comments to be made.

Knox deserved to go free – just like ‘Lockerbie Bomber’

[This is the heading over a section of conservative commentator Peter Hitchens's column in today's edition of the Mail on Sunday. The section reads as follows:]

As it happens, I don’t think the Italian state ever came close to proving beyond reasonable doubt that Amanda Knox was guilty of murder.  So, in a general way, I am pleased that she has been freed.

But compare the frenzy of interest over this rather unimportant case with the strange silence over the equally dubious – but far more important – conviction of the so-called Lockerbie Bomber, the Libyan Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.

One of the key witnesses against him has since admitted to lying in court.

Another, described by a  senior judge as ‘an apple short of a picnic’, shockingly received a $2 million (£1.28 million) reward after giving evidence that many experts regard as highly dubious.

I suspect Megrahi’s release had more to do with the fear of a  final, successful appeal revealing inconvenient facts than it did with ­ British oil interests. If the US had wanted to stop him being freed, they could have. After all, they made us surrender to the IRA.

Confusion over Megrahi interview

[This is the headline over a report by Lucy Adams published this evening on the HeraldScotland website. It reads as follows:]

The Crown Office has written to relatives of victims of the Lockerbie tragedy about allegations the man convicted of the bombing has somehow admitted his guilt.

According to a Reuters interview at the start of the week, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi said: “The West exaggerated my name.” However, newspapers around the globe have quoted this to say that the West exaggerated his role. 

The Crown Office letter to relatives states: “We are aware that Megrahi is reported as having said that his role in the Lockerbie bombing was exaggerated. 

“Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary have been instructed to obtain the whole interview. The translation will be checked for accuracy. As always, we will provide you with more information as soon as it is appropriate to do so and answer as many of your questions as we can.” 

Megrahi, released more than two years ago on compassionate grounds, has consistently denied involvement in the bombing. 

An academic from the University of St Andrews told The Herald yesterday that the translation was different to that reported.

Dina Al Afranji, a teaching fellow at the Arabic department in the School of Modern Languages at the university, said: “In this extract, Megrahi says: ‘I am a very simple man, and the West made a great deal more of me’.”

Reuters stood by its translation of the interview.

Trial by fury…

[This is the heading over an item posted late last night on bensix's Back Towards The Locus blog. It reads as follows:]

It always surprises me how poorly headlines can reflect the facts they purport to digest. I guess it shouldn’t, though. That’s not always their purpose. In yesterday’s Telegraph, for example, I saw the reader-seizing  headline…

Lockerbie bomber: my role in attack has been exaggerated

The Independent plumped for…

My role was exaggerated, says Lockerbie bomber

The implication is that Megrahi admitted to a role in the attack but not as large a one as has been claimed. In its editorial the Scotsman ran with this…

"…what he apparently said was the West 'exaggerated' his involvement – if so, hardly the ringing denial some of his apologists would have hoped for or expected. As has long been suspected, it seems to confirm his involvement at the very least as part of a team rather than a mastermind."

This, however, is the quote we’re given to support this theory…

"The West exaggerated my name."

This sounds ambiguous but the idea that it’s an admission of guilt is premised on a huge assumption. It asserts that he’s been made to seem like somebody he’s not – that, alone, isn’t an admission of anything; it’s merely a denial. The fact that he’s consistently maintained his innocence leads me to feel that if he’d own up to the crime he’d do it less vaguely. (And, besides, if he was complicit I doubt he’d have had a minor role – obviously I don’t know how the man’s brain works but then he could have surely owned up and received a shorter sentence.)

This quote may be relevant…

"In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced."

This might be a reference to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission report, which cast doubt on Megrahi’s prosecution and was set to be released last month.

I’m still drawing no conclusion as to what transpired in December 1988. Clearly, though, I’m a minority there.

'Labour connived to free Lockerbie bomber' says William Hague

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Scotsman.  It reads in part:]

William Hague has unleashed a fierce attack on the former Labour government, accusing it of "conniving" in the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

He also questioned its moral stance on the international stage, in an unusually harsh critique from a foreign secretary. (...)

Singling out the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Mr Hague added: "They connived in the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Two years ago we said the decision to release al-Megrahi was wrong, and now the whole world can see that we were right." (...)

Mr Hague's direct attack at Labour's stance on the Lockerbie bomber follows a report written by the country's most senior civil servant, Sir Gus O'Donnell, which concluded that the Labour government did "all it could" to help facilitate the release of Megrahi in 2009.

While there was no evidence to show they had actively lobbied the Scottish Government to free him, Sir Gus concluded there was an "underlying desire" to see him return to Libya.

He said the information showed UK ministers had changed their position on the transfer of Libyan prisoners due to commercial considerations, including lobbying by oil firm BP.

The Libyans have subsequently claimed Megrahi's fate was "on the table" in the infamous "deal in the desert" conducted by Tony Blair and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2007.

In their defence, Mr Blair and former justice secretary Jack Straw have insisted that their dealings with the former Gaddafi regime helped to persuade him to end his weapons development programme.

He added: "As all the published documentation demonstrates, only the Scottish Government played with a straight bat on this matter."

Waite’s backing

[This is the headline over a short report published today on the HeraldScotland website.  It reads as follows:]

Terry Waite will put his name to Dr Jim Swire’s Justice for Megrahi petition calling for an inquiry into the Lockerbie case and Abdelbaset al Megrahi’s conviction.

The former hostage said the time is right for a case review. 

[The announcement was made in the course of Mr Waite's 2011 SACRO Lecture, delivered last night in Edinburgh.]

Lockerbie bomber’s confession ‘a translation error’

[This is the headline over a report published today (behind the paywall) on the website of The Times.  It reads in part:]

Scottish prosecutors are seeking a copy of an interview with the Lockerbie bomber, in which he appeared to admit that he had played a role in the atrocity.

A spokesman said last night: “We are aware of the interview with [Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi] which was partly broadcast on yesterday’s news. We are also aware that Megrahi is reported as having said in that interview that his role in the Lockerbie bombing was exaggerated.

“Dumfries and Galloway police have been instructed to obtain the whole interview. Once available the translation will be checked for accuracy.”

However, supporters of al-Megrahi claimed yesterday that his apparent admission was a mistranslation.

After the interview, conducted with Reuters news agency from his sickbed in Tripoli, al-Megrahi was widely quoted as saying that his role in the bombing had been “exaggerated”, a word that seemed to suggest that he had been involved in the atrocity. Hitherto he had always protested his innocence.

Robert Black, QC, Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, maintained that the interview had not been translated correctly and that the Arabic word used by al-Megrahi was a different one, which meant to “invent or fabricate” rather than “exaggerate”. [RB: I myself speak no Arabic. I was informed by an Arabic speaker that the word used was "echtera" ( اخترع ) which means "invent, concoct, fabricate".]

Professor Black said: “Far from being a confession, this was actually a vehement denial of any involvement.”

The Reuters news agency, which carried out the interview at al-Megrahi’s home this week, stood by its translation.

The Times, which has studied the original Arabic quoted by Reuters, has established that al-Megrahi used the word “kabbirni” which literally means “made my name bigger” — that is, he meant that the West had made his role seem bigger than it was. Al-Megrahi’s Scottish-based lawyer, Tony Kelly, intervened to warn against interpreting the comments made in the interview as a confession. “He was clearly in some distress and he is on medication, therefore subjecting these comments to any great scrutiny is unfair,” Mr Kelly said.

Al-Megrahi used his first interview in two years to criticise his trial in The Hague, which ended with his conviction for the 1988 terrorist act. He described the proceedings held in the Dutch court under Scots law as a farce and branded prosecutors “liars”.

“The facts will become clear one day, and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced. The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months. All my work was administrative. I never harmed Libyans. I didn’t harm anyone. I’ve never harmed anyone in my life,” he said. [RB: Even if "exaggerated" is an accurate translation of the Arabic, this passage does not, on any fair reading, amount to a confession of involvement in the destruction of Pan Am 103.]

Al-Megrahi’s lawyer said that the revelations that al-Megrahi referred to in the interview would be contained in the Libyan’s memoirs, which are due to be published in the near future. The Lockerbie bomber’s autobiography will contain details of the appeal he was planning to make against his conviction. (...)

Al-Megrahi also revealed that one of the relatives of a Lockerbie victim is helping him to secure powerful new drugs that could help prolong his life.

Jim Swire, who lost his daughter, Flora, in the bombing, believes that al-Megrahi is innocent and has offered to help him locate medicine that could help his condition. Dr Swire said: “I don’t believe this man murdered my daughter so I’m happy to help, and as a doctor I can’t discriminate — if someone needs help I must give it.”

[A letter headed The truth must be fearlessly pursued from Dr John Cameron in today's edition of The Scotsman contains the following:]

The performance of the Italian forensic team [in the Amanda Knox case] was deplorable and on a par with that seen in the prosecutions of Detective Constable Shirley McKie and Megrahi. Yet Italy can be proud that its system is self-righting while our judiciary still struggles to admit culpability in the manifestly unsafe verdicts on McKie and Megrahi.

[A letter from David Flett in the same newspaper reads as follows:]

Mr Megrahi promises us fresh new facts in the coming months that will add to his claim of innocence.

Could he perhaps be referring to publication of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) report?

It's ironic that while we lambast Westminster, Libya and the USA for not revealing all information in their possession we here in Scotland keep hidden the findings of a four-year independent investigation into the case.

It's obvious to me that all our politicians and our own justice system lack the stomach to pursue the Lockerbie truth.

So it was therefore further disappointing to see our very own Scotsman newspaper appear to misquote Megrahi and suggest a "confession" had taken place, adding yet another untruth to the mountain of untruths.

Police ask for a copy of Megrahi's television interview

[This is the headline over a report by David Cowan just published on the STV News website.  It reads as follows:]

Dumfries and Galloway Police will carry out their own translation of the interview carried out by Reuters.

Dumfries and Galloway Police have been instructed to obtain a copy of the first television interview given by the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Al-Megrahi since his release from a Scottish jail more than two years ago.

The Reuters news agency reported that Megrahi told them "his role in the Lockerbie bombing had been exaggerated."

If the agency's interpretation of what was said was correct, it would have been the Libyan's first ever acknowledgement that he played any part at all in the bombing of Pan Am 103 and the murder of 270 people.

In the 20 years since Megrahi was first named as a suspect he has consistently denied any involvement.

But according to Reuters' own translation, Megrahi's actual words were only: "The West exaggerated my name."

In the rest of the interview, he denies having ever harmed anyone, and says the "facts" about the bombing will become clear "hopefully in the near future."

Some of Megrahi's supporters have disputed the agency's translation of the interview.

The Crown Office has told STV News it is seeking a copy of the full interview to establish exactly what was said.

A spokesman commented: "We are aware of the interview of Megrahi which was partly broadcast on yesterday's news.

"We are also aware that Megrahi is reported as having said in that interview that his role in the Lockerbie bombing was exaggerated.

"Dumfries and Galloway police have been instructed to obtain the whole interview. Once available the translation will be checked for accuracy."

The process could take some time. It's standard practise for British television stations to decline to hand over their footage unless ordered to do so by the courts.

Megrahi's death bed 'confession'

[This is the headline (which at least puts "confession" within quotation marks) over the report in today's edition of The Scotsman on Abdelbaset Megrahi's Reuters interview. It reads in part:]

The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has for the first time appeared to admit that he did play some role in Britain's biggest mass murder.

After more than a decade protesting his innocence, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi said his role in the attack on Pan Am flight 103, which claimed 270 lives, had been "exaggerated". (...)

In his first public statement in more than two years, he indicated he knew more about the truth of the bombing when he said: "The facts will become clear one day, and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced."

The remarks were seized upon by politicians in Scotland who said the former Libyan intelligence agent's comments showed he now "did not deny playing a part" in the 1988 attack.

Megrahi had previously described his conviction as a "miscarriage of justice" and described himself as an "innocent man", in a series of outright denials. (...)

In the interview, Megrahi attacked the proceedings of the trial, held in a Dutch court under Scots law, as a "farce" and branded prosecutors "liars". (...)

 He said: "The facts [about the Lockerbie bombing] will become clear one day, and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced. The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."

"All my work was administrative. I never harmed Libyans. I didn't harm anyone. I've never harmed anyone in my life."

Robert Black, QC, a Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, said on a blog that part of the interview with Megrahi had not been translated correctly and that the Arabic word used translates not as "exaggerate", but as "invent, concoct, contrive, think up, manufacture, fabricate". Reuters, however, stood by its translation. [RB: This matter is easily resolved by any journalist with a measure of initiative. Was the Arabic word used by Megrahi in the sentence given in English as "The West exaggerated my name"  a form of

اخترع ? If so, is the correct translation of that word "exaggerate" as Reuters contend or "invent, concoct, contrive, think up, manufacture, fabricate" as I contend?]

Shadow justice minister Johann Lamont said Megrahi's statement that "the West exaggerated my name" was an admission of some involvement in the attack, as the interview re-opened the controversy over the SNP government's decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August 2009.

Ms Lamont insisted Megrahi "was guilty of playing a part in the bombing" and suggested he knew more than he claimed. (...)

Dr [Jim] Swire repeated his view that Megrahi had been "framed" and said that what were likely to be the Libyan's final public comments showed he was a "decent chap" who had been in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

He went on: "There's nothing to suggest that he was linked to the attack and the evidence never held water.."

SNP MSP Christine Grahame said: "He was put up as a fall guy, who perhaps was expected to get off, but didn't. He was put in a position that suited Libya and suited everybody."

[Further articles in The Scotsman based on the false premiss that Megrahi said that his role had been "exaggerated" can be read here and here.

The coverage of this issue in Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here.]

"I didn't harm anyone. I've never harmed anyone..."

[The following are excerpts from a Reuters news agency report published this afternoon:]

Al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison two years ago because he was suffering from terminal cancer, spoke to Reuters from a bed at his home in Tripoli. Looking frail and his breathing laboured, he said he had only a few months, at most, left to live.

"The facts (about the Lockerbie bombing) will become clear one day and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced," he told Reuters Television over the pinging of medical monitors around his bed.

"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months." (...)

Al-Megrahi, who had served as an intelligence agent during the rule of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, denied any role in the human rights abuses committed by Gaddafi's administration.

"All my work was administrative. I never harmed Libyans," he said." I didn't harm anyone. I've never harmed anyone in my life."

He called the trial that led to his conviction a farce. The proceedings were held in a Dutch court under Scottish jurisdiction.

"Camp Zeist Court is the smallest place on earth that contains the largest number of liars. I suffered from the liars at Camp Zeist Court more than you can imagine," he said.

Al-Megrahi lay propped at a slight angle in a hospital-style bed. An oxygen tank stood nearby, but he did not use an oxygen mask during the interview. Members of his family were in the room with him.

Unshaven, he wore a checked shirt and had a white headdress wrapped loosely around his head.

He said that Jim Swire, a father of one of the victims of the bombing who has disputed the court's findings, maintained contact with him.

"The day before yesterday, Dr Swire sent me an email to tell me that there is a new medicine. He is trying to help me. He told me how to get this medicine."

He said had little knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Gaddafi's overthrow and that the armed groups which toppled Gaddafi had invaded his home and mistreated him.

"I don't know anything about February 17th...that's not a question for a sick person," he said, using the term by which many Libyans describe the anti-Gaddafi rebellion. "I hear airplanes overhead every day," he said, referring to NATO planes which have bombed sites in Libya.

"My house has been violated. They smashed the main door and stole my cars."

He said he was being denied medical treatment which he said was stipulated in the deal that saw him returned from Scotland to Libya.

"I was treated badly when I came back. During the latest incidents, especially in the last month, I have a shortage of all my medicines. My doctor tells me to look for medicine like anyone else despite the agreement between us and Britain," he said. "I have four pills left (of one of the medications)."

"I want to die in my house, among my family. I hope to God that I will see my country united, with no fighting or war. I hope the bloodshed will stop in Libya. I wish all the best for my country."

[It is annoying that the summary that introduces this report states that Megrahi told Reuters "his role in the attack had been exaggerated". This is not, of course, what he said.  But such is the laziness of the media, it is undoubtedly what will be headlined, as in this report on the BBC News website. (I see that the headline over the BBC News report has now -- 17.15 -- been changed.)

I am informed that the Arabic word used by Mr Megrahi in the interview was اخترع

which translates, not as "exaggerate", but as "invent, concoct, contrive, think up, manufacture, fabricate".

This blog post has been picked up by Newsnet Scotland in a report headlined Leading QC attacks BBC over ‘misleading’ Megrahi headline.]

Megrahi release sees trade treble

[This is the headline over a report (behind the paywall) published today on the website of The Sunday Times.  It reads in part:]

A significant growth in trade between the UK and Libya, following the Lockerbie bomber Megrahi’s release, suggest a government bargain

Politicians are facing fresh claims of a “trade for terrorist” deal over the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi after it emerged that the value of business between Scotland and Libya trebled in the year following his release.

Official government figures show the value of deals with Libya, which threatened to terminate energy and defence contracts with Britain unless Megrahi was freed, rose from £33m in 2008 to £104m in 2010.

The value of imports and exports with Qatar, which also lobbied Scottish ministers to free Megrahi on behalf of the 22 member states of the Arab League, more than doubled from £60m to £137m over the same period.

Britain’s trade with Qatar increased four-fold, from £802m to £3.2 billion, while the value of its deals with Libya rose 34% to £1.66 billion.

Declassified documents have previously shown that Gordon Brown’s government tried to help secure Megrahi’s release to safeguard trade with Libya.

The Scottish government insists its decision was based on compassionate grounds after Megrahi was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Megrahi is still alive, more than two years after his release. (...)

 A Labour spokesman said the trade figures were “extremely surprising” and raised questions for Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister. [RB: If the trade figures -- which relate to Britain, not Scotland -- raise questions, they are surely questions for the then Labour Government of the UK.  Perhaps realisation of this is the reason why the "Labour spokesman" hides behind a cloak of anonymity.

Addendum 
The print version of this report on page 5 of the Scottish edition of The Sunday Times identifies the Labour spokesman as James Kelly MSP. It ends with the following sentence: "Qatar officials denied offering the Scottish government any inducement to release Megrahi."]

Freeing Megrahi deepened mistrust of politicians, says Terry Waite

[This is part of the headline over a report in today's edition of Scotland on Sunday.  It reads in part:]

Kenny MacAskill's decision to free the Lockerbie bomber has deepened the public's mistrust of politicians, Terry Waite will say when he gives a lecture in Scotland this week.

 

The former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury will suggest that the public outcry over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi has undermined the credibility of politicians.

Speaking before he travels north of the Border, Waite, who spent five years in captivity at the hands of Islamic Jihad, said he believed in compassionate release for terminally ill prisoners. (...)

Yesterday, Waite said he will address the Megrahi issue this week when he talks on "Compassion and Justice" at the annual SACRO lecture at Edinburgh University's Playfair Library.

"I don't believe in being soft on crime or criminals, but I hold to the principle of compassion," Waite told Scotland on Sunday.

"But the public outcry (over Megrahi] reveals a couple of things: what a complex and miserable issue it is, and it reveals a certain lack of confidence or trust by the general public in those who have been in a position to make decisions on these matters. Generally the public are not terribly trustful that they are being told the truth - that politicians are necessarily telling the truth."