Megrahi: eight key pieces of evidence

[This is the headline over the second batch of material derived from Megrahi: You are my Jury published today on the heraldscotland.com website.  It reads in part:]

Megrahi: You are my Jury, The Lockerbie Evidence is a detailed book, spanning 460 pages, 15 chapters, four appendices, and a six-page glossary. It explores a number of key areas which campaigners will regard as crucial to the case, including eight which relate to previously unseen evidence. Here, chief reporter LUCY ADAMS present extracts from the book and explain why they matter.

1.Why Megrahi dropped the appeal

CONTEXT: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi had two possible routes out of Greenock jail in August 2009: a prisoner transfer application for which he first had to drop his appeal, or compassionate release because of his prostate cancer. The latter route did not demand that he drop his appeal, in contrast to the former. In the event, he ended his appeal, yet the PTA was turned down, and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill instead granted compassionate release. The chain of actions has always been a mystery, leaving those who believe in Megrahi’s guilt to see his decision as confirmation of their views. Why would an innocent man not pursue an appeal against conviction that he had waited years to begin? Now, for the first time, Megrahi claims that he was pressured to drop the appeal by Mr MacAskill personally through diplomatic channels.

EXTRACT: "On 10 August MacAskill and his senior civil servants met a delegation of Libyan officials, including Minister [Abdel Ali] Al-Obeidi. By this time I was desperate. The 90-day time limit for considering the prisoner transfer application had passed and, although I had some vocal public supporters, MacAskill was coming under considerable pressure to reject both applications. After the meeting the Libyan delegation came to the prison to visit me. Obeidi said that, towards the end of the meeting, MacAskill had asked to speak to him in private. Once the others had withdrawn, MacAskill told him it would be easier for him to grant compassionate release if I dropped my appeal. He [MacAskill] said he was not demanding that I do so, but the message seemed to me to be clear. I was legally entitled to continue the appeal, but I could not risk doing so. It meant abandoning my quest for justice."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT:  Mr MacAskill, who was not contacted in advance of today's book publication, has always said he could not interfere in the judicial process. If Megrahi's version of events is true, it will prove very damaging to the minister, who has repeatedly distanced himself from any appeal which, if it had gone ahead, could have been a massive embarrassment to the Scottish legal system. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had already found six grounds on which Megrahi’s conviction was potentially unsafe.

2. The timer fragment

CONTEXT: At Megrahi's trial at Camp Zeist, it was agreed that the fragment of electrical circuit board found at the Lockerbie crash site [and referred to as PT/35b] came from an MST-13 board manufactured by the Swiss company Mebo and Thuring, its supplier. Mebo revealed that it had sold 20 such timers to the Libyans, and this became a hugely significant part of the case against Megrahi. However, the book claims that new evidence shows the fragment of circuit board found at Lockerbie, which was 100% covered in tin, did not match those in the timers sent to Libya and alleges that the Crown's forensic expert at trial, Allen Feraday, was aware of the disparity but failed to disclose it.

EXTRACT: "On 23 October 2008, at just after 7pm, a member of [Tony] Kelly's [defence] team finally put the crucial question to Bonfadelli [Urs Bonfadelli was responsible for the manufacture of Mebo’s MST-13 boards]: was the circuitry of the MST-13 boards coated with pure tin or a tin/lead alloy? His answer was clear and devastating: all were coated with an alloy of 70% tin and 30% lead. There could be no mistaking this, he said. It was imminently apparent what this meant: if PT/35b’s coating had not been changed by the explosion, then it could not have been made by Thuring and therefore could not have been one of the 20 timers supplied to Libya."

Mr Kelly subsequently instructed two independent experts to see if the heat of the explosion could have turned the fragment’s tin/lead alloy to tin – Dr Chris McArdle, who had 25 years experience in the electronics industry, and Dr Jess Cawley, a metallurgist with over 35 years experience. The book adds: "..McArdle pointed out there was no way that it would have been hot enough for the lead to have evaporated away… Cawley agreed, pointing out that, although plastic explosives of the type used in the Lockerbie bomb produce a flash of intense heat, lead, like most metals, requires a far longer exposure to high temperatures before it would melt, let alone evaporate."

Documents from the Ministry of Defence Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment, disclosed by the Crown just before Megrahi's appeal was dropped, revealed contradictory notes from Mr Feraday saying the coating was pure tin and then "70/30 SN/Pb" (70% tin and 30% lead). The book states: "Had these documents been disclosed to the defence team, they would have provided the basis for a vigorous cross-examination of Feraday."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT: This was one of the most important components of the prosecution case against Megrahi. As the book admits, this was the "golden thread". However, shortly before Megrahi dropped his appeal, his defence team found proof that the timer was not one of those supplied by Mebo to the Libyans. If anything author John Ashton suggests – based on expert opinion – that the circuit board was likely to have been "DIY" rather than commercially manufactured. With this information, the golden thread falls.

3. The Iranian connection

CONTEXT: In the book's preface, Megrahi says he does not want to "point the finger of blame at anyone else", but much of the material drawn together will lead readers to believe that Iran funded the PFLP-GC [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command] to carry out the bombing, in retaliation for the American warship the USS Vincennes shooting down an Iranian passenger jet and killing all 300 people on board in 1988. The US apparently mistook it for an F-14 fighter.

EXTRACT: "The most difficult witness [for the defence team] to get to was the PFLP-GC bomb-maker and double agent Marwen Khreesat. Asked about the aim of his October 1988 mission to West Germany, Khreesat was unambiguous: 'It was made very clear to us by Ahmed Jibril [leader of the PFLPC-GC] that he wanted to blow up an aeroplane. This was the whole purpose of being there. Dalkamoni and I travelled to Frankfurt in order to go to the offices of Pan Am to get information about their flight schedules. We did this. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Jibril wanted a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt blown up.' Although Khreesat remained adamant that his bombs were not of the twin-speaker type used for the Lockerbie bomb, he revealed that Dalkamoni had at least one other radio cassette bomb. If Khreesat was right, here at last was confirmation that the PFLP-GC had at least one twin speaker device in West Germany."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT: The initial investigation into Lockerbie in 1989 all pointed towards the culpability of a German cell of the PFLP-GC. There is much within the book, including the above statement by bomb-maker Marwen Khreesat which appears to confirm this view. There are also notes showing that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher blocked a public inquiry in the bombing and an explanation that politically it was not expedient to fall out with Iran – whose oil was relied upon - in the run-up to the Gulf War against Iraq. A great deal of the evidence incriminating the PFLPC-GC was not disclosed at the original trial or appeal. The heavily referenced allegations in the book make it seem more likely that they were behind the Lockerbie bombing than Libya. To have dismissed the evidence against them at the time raises questions about the role and potential bias of some of the security agencies involved, and the murkiness of the international politics which has always shrouded the Lockerbie case.

4. Reward money and the reliability of witnesses

CONTEXT: In the UK witnesses cannot be paid for their information. However, the book describes in detail how both Tony and Paul Gauci were offered reward money by the American Justice Department. And, we learn for the first time, that this was discussed even before Tony Gauci's first statement. The book also reveals that Edwin Bollier, who ran Mebo and testified against Megrahi, was very interested in "the reward money".

EXTRACT: "The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) concluded 'In referring the case on this ground the Commission is conscious of the potential impact of its decision on Mr Gauci who may well have given entirely credible evidence notwithstanding an alleged interest in financial payment. On the other hand there are sound reasons to believe that the information in question would have been used by the defence as a means of challenging its credibility. Such a challenge may well have been justified, and in the Commission’s view was capable of affecting the course of the evidence and the eventual outcome of the trial.'"

The book also reveals that several other witnesses had the possibility of reward money dangled before them: "Lamin [Fhimah's – Megrahi's co-accused, cleared at Camp Zeist] former business partner Vincent Vassalo whom Abdelbaset and Lamin had visited the evening before the bombing. He confirmed that it was his first meeting with Abdelbaset, who had introduced himself by his real name, rather than the one on his coded passport. He described Lamin's shock on learning of the police investigation and his willingness to allow them to search the Medtours office and take his diary. Once the search was finished he said DCI [Harry] Bell [who was in charge of the police investigation in Malta] reminded him that a 'big reward' was on offer for any helpful information he could provide."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT: The fact that Tony Gauci, the Crown's key witness who testified that he saw Megrahi buy specific clothes in his shop which were later identified as having been near the bomb, was even offered a reward raised the concerns of the SCCRC. It undermines his witness statements, which we now know were far more inconsistent and numerous than previously disclosed. The revelation that Bollier and others were offered the possibility of reward money also goes some way towards discrediting the integrity of the investigation itself.

5.Undisclosed evidence

CONTEXT: The SCCRC unearthed numerous statements, police reports and other documents which had never been shared with the defence team. Part of the reason the case was referred back for a fresh appeal was the non-disclosure of evidence. A fascinating part of the book talks about the James Bond-like tales of attempted coups, spying and double agents going on across the world. In particular, it makes reference to an attempted coup in Togo in which timers matching those thought to have been used in the Lockerbie bombing were discovered, and hints at subterfuge and espionage by the American security services and others and details the confusion caused. The prosecution had claimed that there were only 20 Mebo MST-13 timers and that they were sold only to the Libyans.

EXTRACT: "The Commission unearthed potentially significant information about the MST-13 timers found in West Africa. Two timers were recovered from Togo in 1986. Among the documents disclosed to the Commission was a previously confidential memo, produced by [Senior Investigating Officer] Stuart Henderson the month after the interview of Jean Baptiste Collin [the official in charge in Togo], which provided a lengthy overview of the investigation. As the following passage made clear, the West Africa investigations were causing considerable concern. [SIO Henderson wrote]: 'After the recent interview of Collin, it is now more clear than ever that the circumstances surrounding the recovery of the 'boxed MST-13 timer' in Senegal must be clarified beyond doubt. The whole essence of the 'MST-13 timers' is the sole manufacture by the Mebo company in world terms and the explicit distribution to the Libyan ESO. Unless we can consolidate the precise number of MST-13 timers circuit boards manufactured to fit the ‘boxed timers’ and confirm the fact they were distributed, solely to the Libyans, then we have serious problems with our direct evidence. [Collin] inferred that the Americans knew the whole story... Crucially the notes [by DI William Williamson] went on to record that Collin said the timer had been given to an 'intelligence agency'."

To date, at least two documents not disclosed to the defence still remain a secret because the UK Government claims publicising them would be a threat to national security. The book states: "The last of the Commission's Statement of Reasons... was certainly the strangest of the six. It concerned two secret documents, supplied by another country, which members of the Commission’s team had been allowed to view at Dumfries police station in September 2006. They were forbidden from copying them. On 27 April 2007, the Crown Office confirmed to the Commission that they had carefully considered whether or not the documents required to be disclosed to the defence and had concluded they did not. The Statement of Reasons gave only two clues to the documents' contents. The first was an extract from the Crown's 27 April 2007 letter which read 'it has never been the Crown's position in this case that the MST-13 timers were not supplied by the Libyan intelligence services to any other party or that only Libyan intelligence services were in possession of the timers'. The second came in paragraph 25.6 of the Statement which read 'In the Commission's view the Crown's decision not to disclose one of the documents to the defence indicates that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.'"

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT: Since the trial at Zeist, Scots law has been challenged at the Supreme Court and the policy of non-disclosure has had to be changed. A number of appeals have been won on the grounds that important evidence was not shared with defence lawyers. We now know that numerous documents were not disclosed to the Lockerbie defence team. Some were sent to them after the second appeal was dropped. Others may never be shared. Advocates in the past have described the unfairness of partial disclosure as "playing with a stacked deck". This alone could have seen Megrahi acquitted if his appeal had proceeded.

6. Forensics anomalies

CONTEXT The forensics case against Megrahi was critical. The book reveals anomalies, contradictions, and arguments between police, the forensics team, the CIA, and the FBI. It also claims that information was withheld by the CIA and says anomalies later found in the forensic evidence from the Ministry of Defence Royal Armaments Research and Development Establishment "cast doubt on the overall reliability" of some of the forensic reports.

EXTRACT: "Six years after [Dr Thomas] Hayes [of RARDE] testified, a previously secret police memo came to light that contradicted his evidence and stated that a residue test had, in fact, been conducted...Most of the contradictory accounts about how PT/35b was linked to the MST-13 timer were only revealed seven years later, when the Crown’s precognition statements of Feraday, Williamson, Thurman and Orkin were released by the SCCRC. Had the defence known about them at trial, they would have provided the basis for vigorous cross-examinations of the relevant witnesses...

"Viewed in isolation, the individual anomalies surrounding the fragment may have appeared trivial, but together they formed a shroud of suspicion that could not be dislodged. Had they concerned a less important item, they could, perhaps, have been overlooked, but the fragment was easily the most crucial physical evidence in the entire case – the golden thread that linked Abdelbaset to the bomb."

Other items were not contained within the forensic reports – including a small piece of circuit board from the radio cassette bomb found in Dalkamoni's [of the Palestinian PFLPC-GC] car in Germany – something the defence team only learned about years later. The book states: "Whatever lay behind the multiple anomalies, inconsistencies, and omissions, their cumulative effect was to erode the façade of forensic certainty that surrounded the Crown case."

There were other pieces of forensic information not disclosed by the Crown which pointed – again – at the potential involvement of the PFLPC-GC. "Further important forensic information was contained in a Crown precognition statement by Hayes's RARDE colleague Allen Feraday. He revealed that he had been unable to rule out one of the debris items, PI/1588, as being part of a barometric trigger. Given that the PFLP-GC bombs found in Neuss [in the German raid on the PFLPC-GC] were barometric, this was potentially significant."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT This is one of the densest and most complex sections of the book. The details of different dates, reports, and contradictions is confusing but the overall impression is that the scientists and forensics experts involved were working under enormous pressure in very difficult circumstances. There is a sense that the American security services often failed to disclose or delayed disclosure of information to the Scottish police investigating. The overall picture is that non-disclosure of certain forensic information at the trial and the inconsistencies in the forensic reports subsequently seen by the defence team, raise serious questions about aspects of the prosecution's forensic case.

7. The Bedford suitcase

CONTEXT: Ascertaining which suitcase contained the bomb was critical in the initial stages of the police investigation and subsequent forensic work. Much of the investigation focused on where the suitcase was "ingested" – whether it was through the airport at Malta, Frankfurt or Heathrow. Who put it on to the plane and how? According to the Crown, forensic analysis of the fuselage indicated the suitcase containing the bomb was in the second layer of suitcases – indicating it had come from a feeder flight, rather than Heathrow. However, the book reveals that Tony Kelly's review of the evidence focused on a brown hard-sided suitcase seen by baggage loader John Bedford before the Frankfurt feeder flight arrived. At trial, the judges described Bedford as a "clear and impressive witness" but said there were many items of luggage not dealt with in detail in the evidence of the case.

EXTRACT: "Kelly’s team uncovered evidence that, had it been heard at trial, might have denied the judges these get-outs. If the Bedford bag were not the primary suitcase then, since he [Bedford] saw it before the arrival of PA103A [from Frankfurt], it must have been legitimate. By checking the surviving bags and descriptions provided by the victims’ relatives, [Detective Constable Derek] Henderson established the colour and type of all the legitimate Heathrow interline bags. None were brown, hard-sided suitcases...which meant it was almost certainly the primary case."

That information from DC Henderson was not in the list of productions for the original trial. The book states: "Abdelbaset’s draft grounds of appeal claimed that the absence of the Henderson schedules from the trial constituted a 'material irregularity'...'that material evidence supporting the defence was not properly presented and the appellant was denied a fair trial'."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT Subsequent to the trial and appeal, evidence emerged of a break-in at Heathrow the night before the bombing. Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the tragedy, has consistently drawn attention to this break-in and campaigned for a full inquiry into what happened. The Crown case was, in part, based on the assertion that Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah, his co-accused, ensured the primary suitcase containing the bomb was on the feeder flight from Malta. The fact the break-in at Heathrow the night before the tragedy only came to light after the trial seems shocking. The fact that UK Governments have refused since 1988 to hold a full public inquiry into the case, even more so.

8.  Why Megrahi used a coded passport when in Malta

CONTEXT: At the trial, the original appeal and indeed in a press release last week, the Crown has always made much of Megrahi’s use in Malta of a false passport under the name Abdusamad.

EXTRACT: "My numerous absences created difficulties at home. Like most Libyan marriages at the time ours was very traditional... she was understandably unhappy about my frequent foreign trips, and would often become upset on learning that one was imminent. I therefore fell into the habit, on shorter trips, of telling her I was visiting people elsewhere in Libya...The Libyan Government had by then introduced a policy of issuing those involved in the importation of embargoed goods with so-called coded passports which concealed their real names and their connections to state bodies. These passports were in no sense forgeries, but were rather official documents issued by the Secretary of Transport and tightly regulated. A further advantage was that it enabled me to leave my normal passport at home, which made it easier to travel abroad without Aisha knowing."

LUCY ADAMS VERDICT: Chapter 2 of the book, entitled Before the Nightmare, explains Megrahi’s work importing embargoed cars, soap and cigarettes lighters, and aviation parts. Much of the chapter is in the first person, explaining in detail his course in marine engineering at Cardiff, his first job as a flight dispatcher for Libyan Arab Airlines and his subsequent promotion to controller of operations at Tripoli Airport. It provides a fascinating insight into his life before the indictment but I found it difficult to understand some of his justifications for lying to his wife as he suggest above. It might seem easier to believe if he said he had been having an affair. However, it may be difficult to understand because it is hard to relate to what it must have been like to live in a country under such strict trade sanctions as Libya had at the time.

Megrahi: how MacAskill linked my release to dropping my appeal

[This is the headline over an extract (with commentary) from John Ashton’s book Megrahi: You are my Jury being published today on the heraldscotland.com website. The extract reads in part:]

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill personally urged the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to drop his appeal as a way of helping his compassionate release from prison, a new book claims today.

The authorised biography of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi reveals for the first time that the minister responsible for deciding whether he would return to Libya actively encouraged Megrahi to give up his case in the appeal court, telling a senior Libyan minister in a private meeting in Edinburgh that "it would be easier for him to grant compassionate release if I dropped my appeal".

By doing so, the Scottish legal system was spared further scrutiny over a case which many observers believe was based on a fundamental miscarriage of justice. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had already highlighted six grounds for suggesting Megrahi's conviction for the murder of 270 people at Lockerbie was unsafe.

The book, released this morning at a press conference in Edinburgh, contains the most explicit account of the extraordinary events leading up to Megrahi's controversial release on compassionate grounds in August 2009, which divided public opinion across the world and brought a storm of criticism, particularly from US officials and relatives.

Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was said to have only three months to live, but is still alive more than two years later.

In the book he writes: "On 10 August (2009), MacAskill and his senior civil servants met a delegation of Libyan officials, including Minister [Abdel Ati] Al-Obeidi. By this time I was desperate.

"After the meeting the Libyan delegation came to the prison to visit me. Obeidi said that, towards the end of the meeting, MacAskill had asked to speak to him in private. Once the others had withdrawn, MacAskill told him it would be easier for him to grant compassionate release if I dropped my appeal. He [MacAskill] said he was not demanding that I do so, but the message seemed to me to be clear. I was legally entitled to continue the appeal, but I could not risk doing so. It meant abandoning my quest for justice."

The Herald has previously reported diplomatic meetings at which it was revealed that Megrahi would have to drop his appeal to allow the controversial Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) brokered by Westminster after Tony Blair's infamous deal in the desert to ensure UK-Libyan trade links were restored.

Ultimately, Mr MacAskill turned down the application under the PTA signed by the UK Government and Libya, but granted compassionate release instead, for which the status of Megrahi's appeal should have been irrelevant.

Neither Mr MacAskill nor the Scottish Government has been contacted in advance of the book's publication, but the Justice Secretary has previously denied any interference with the legal process. In 2009, Mr MacAskill said Megrahi’s decision to withdraw his second appeal against conviction was "a matter for him and the courts", adding: "My decisions were predicated on the fact that he was properly investigated, a lawful conviction passed and a life sentence imposed."

However, Megrahi: You Are My Jury, the new book by John Ashton, a former member of the defence team, suggests a direct link between compassionate release and Megrahi dropping his appeal, apparently to protect the reputation of the Scottish justice system after a verdict seen by many as deeply flawed.

Mr Ashton told heraldscotland: "The Justice Secretary and his officials should, at all times, have made it clear to Mr Megrahi and his representatives that, if he chose to continue his appeal, it would have had no bearing on the justice secretary’s decision on whether or not to grant compassionate release.

"Furthermore, they should have been aware that, given Mr Megrahi's desperate position, even the slightest pressure that was applied would have caused him to abandon the appeal, even though he was not legally obliged to do so. Of course, by dropping the appeal he spared the Scottish criminal justice system a colossal embarrassment."

The book contains a number of revelations pertaining to new evidence and previously unseen documents and information. It is based on interviews with Megrahi and the full report of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission which referred the case back for a fresh appeal in June 2007 on six different grounds. The commission's full report has never been published.

Although the appeal was granted in 2007, its start was significantly delayed. The defence team, and the new book, claim that the delays could be blamed on the Crown Office, and that many of them were unnecessary. The Crown denied such claims at the time.

However, it was widely agreed that for the appeal to go ahead and for Megrahi to be acquitted of the worst terrorist atrocity to have taken place on mainland Britain would have been a devastating and embarrassing blow to the Scottish legal system, the police investigation, the Crown and judiciary.

What the new book lays bare is just how much new evidence there was to secure Megrahi’s acquittal and just how likely it was if the appeal had gone ahead.

One of the most significant revelations the defence team learned just before he dropped the appeal concerned a fundamental part of the prosecution’s case against Megrahi: that a fragment of circuit board supposed to confirm that the timer used to detonate the Lockerbie bomb came from a Swiss company linked to Megrahi and which allegedly sold 20 such timers only to Libya did not, in fact, match the circuit boards made by this company.

The book also raises serious questions about the reliability of the Crown’s key witnesses and reveals major inconsistencies in statements and forensics evidence.

Megrahi describes his decision to drop the appeal as a "terrible choice to have to make". He writes: "I never doubted that, if they considered the evidence objectively, the appeal judges would overturn the conviction. From that moment I made that decision, I was determined that, if I could not be judged in a court of law, then I should be judged in the court of public opinion. This book presents the case for both the prosecution and the defence.”

Is someone still blocking the exposure of the truth?

[This is the headline over an article by Dr Jim Swire in today’s edition of The Herald.  It reads as follows:]

Twenty-three years ago in December 1988 my daughter Flora and 258 others boarded a scheduled flight, PA103, from Heathrow bound for New York.

Thirty-eight minutes after take-off they died a horrible death over Lockerbie; 11 died below among a rain of debris.

Who murdered her? Is someone still blocking exposure of the truth? Why was she not protected in all the circumstances surrounding the Lockerbie flight? Those are our questions and we intend to get answers, grievously delayed though we have been by the focus on Megrahi and Libya.

Now comes a new doubt. The Megrahi court was deliberately denied vital evidential material which, had it been heard, might have introduced insuperable doubt as to the prosecution case, and the cause of the absence of that material from the court hearing is still, 23 years later, unknown. This is the last straw.

In the night of 20/21 December 1988, 16 hours before the catastrophe, a night watchman at Heathrow called Manly discovered evidence of a break-in allowing entrance to "airside", close to where the luggage container [later shown to have contained the Lockerbie bomb in its suitcase] was loaded up for PA103 the following evening.

In January 1989, Manly was interviewed by Scotland Yard Special Branch. The interviewing officer actually had the disrupted padlock on the table during the interview.

Yet it was not until after the Zeist court had reached its verdict against Megrahi on his alleged placing of the bomb in Malta, that the news of the break-in finally surfaced.

I understand even more compelling evidence against the authenticity of the "PT35b" fragment will emerge this very week. Please weigh it up, dear reader, as it emerges.

All we seek is the truth, and we are tired of waiting.

New evidence casts doubt in Lockerbie case

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

Fresh scientific evidence unearthed by a Scottish legal review undermines the case against the man convicted of being responsible for the Lockerbie aircraft bombing, an investigation for Al Jazeera has found.

The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC) report details evidence that would likely have resulted in the verdict against Abdel Baset al-Meghrahi, a Libyan man convicted of carrying out the bombing of Pan-Am flight 103 in 1988, being overturned.

'Lockerbie: Case Closed', an hour-long documentary to be aired on Al Jazeera on Monday, examines the evidence uncovered by the SCCRC as well as revealing fresh scientific evidence which is unknown to the commission but which comprehensively undermines a crucial part of the case against the man known as the Lockerbie bomber.

Among the evidence examined by the SCCRC was the testimony of Tony Gauci, a shop owner from Malta, and the most important prosecution witness in the case.

Gauci identified Megrahi as a man who had bought clothing and an umbrella from him on December 7, 1988 - remnants of which were later recovered from among debris recovered from the disaster scene. 

The SCCRC found a number of reasons to seriously question this identification and Gauci’s account of events on that date, which was also the only day on which Megrahi could have been present in Malta to make such purchases.

The report also raises concerns about the legitimacy of the formal identification process, in which Gauci picked Megrahi out from a line-up. The commission found that Gauci had seen Megrahi’s photo in a magazine article identifying him as a possible suspect many weeks before the parade took place.

The SCCRC also found that Scottish police knew that Gauci was interested in financial rewards, despite maintaining that the shopkeeper had shown no such interest.

Gauci reportedly picked up a $2 million US government reward for his role in the case. Under Scottish law, witnesses cannot be paid for their testimony.

Most significantly, the documentary will reveal the dramatic results of new scientific tests that destroy the most crucial piece of forensic evidence linking the bombing to Libya.

The new revelations were put to the terminally sick Megrahi in Libya, and his comments on the case will be heard for the first time in these films.

Of Gauci, he maintains that he never visited his shop.

"If I have a chance to see him [Gauci] I am forgiving him. I would tell him that I have never in my entire life been in his shop. I have never bought any clothing from him. And I tell him that he dealt with me very wrongly. This man – I have never seen him in my entire life except when he came to the court. I find him a very simple man," Meghrahi told Al Jazeera.

John Ashton, who has been investigating the case for nearly 20 years, including time spent as part of Megrahi’s defence team, said: "The Lockerbie disaster was Europe’s worst terrorist attack. More Americans died in that attack than in any other terrorist event before 9/11. It's also Britain’s worst miscarriage of justice, the wrong man was convicted and the real killers are still out there."

Lockerbie: Case Closed will be broadcast on Monday 27 February at 20:00 GMT on Al Jazeera English.


[The following is an excerpt from a report in today’s edition of The Herald:]


Today the official biography of the Libyan convicted of the atrocity, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, will be launched and two documentaries will be aired, all of which highlight new evidence and previously unseen documents that experts say would have overturned the conviction.

Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci claimed that Megrahi purchased clothes found packed around the bomb – a claim the Libyan has always denied.

In one of the TV programmes, Megrahi, 59, says: "I have never seen him in my entire life except when he came to the court. I find him a very simple man. But I do forgive him."

The Herald is one of only two newspapers in the world to have had advance access to the book, Megrahi: You Are My Jury, by John Ashton, a former member of the defence team.

The Al Jazeera documentary to be broadcast today claims Megrahi's conviction would "almost certainly" have been overturned had previously unseen evidence been used in an appeal.

The programme, Lockerbie: Case Closed, gained access to the investigations of the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC) – which referred Megrahi's case for a fresh appeal in June 2007 on six grounds – and also uncovered fresh scientific evidence that it claims is unknown to the commission and "comprehensively undermines" part of the case against Megrahi. (…)

Earlier this month, campaigners fighting on behalf of Megrahi accused politicians, lawyers, civil servants and governments of an "orchestrated desire" to keep details of his case under wraps.

Members of the Justice For Megrahi group, who have called for an inquiry into his conviction, said the Crown Office and civil service would "do anything" to stop disclosure.

The Al Jazeera documentary claims to disclose the "dramatic results" of new scientific tests that undermine forensic evidence used in the case.

John Ashton, the author of the book, has been investigating the case for nearly 20 years.

He said: "The Lockerbie disaster was Europe's worst terrorist attack. More Americans died in that attack than in any other terrorist event before 9/11. It's also Britain's worst miscarriage of justice – the wrong man was convicted and the real killers are still out there."

[A report in today’s edition of The Scotsman contains the following:]

Scottish publisher Birlinn launches into the Lockerbie controversy today with the publication of a book that promises the fullest account yet of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi’s story in his own words.

Megrahi: You Are My Jury – The Lockerbie Evidence, is by John Ashton, who worked with Megrahi’s legal team from 2006 to 2009.

A long-time researcher on the case, he is said to have been working on the 500-page book with Megrahi since the latter’s release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds following a cancer diagnosis in August 2009.

In its summary, the book promises to present “conclusive new evidence” to prove Megrahi was “an innocent victim of dirty politics, a flawed investigation and judicial folly”. (…)

Details of the book’s contents have been a closely guarded secret. But it has hit the headlines well before its publication, with some parents of those who died denouncing it as “blood money”.

The Rev John Mosey, will be in Edinburgh today for the book’s launch. His daughter died in the atrocity.

He said he respected Mr Ashton’s research, adding: “If the rumours of its contents are well-founded, it could open up the Lockerbie thing in a very serious manner that the legal profession will have to take notice of.” (…)

Nearly half of the latest book is in Megrahi’s own words, a Birlinn spokesperson said yesterday. About a third explores the forensic evidence, and one person who has read it described it as so complicated that “my brain has been stewed”.

The Birlinn spokesperson said: “The book came to us, and the board talked about it long and hard, but decided that this was a book we wanted to publish.

“We published it without serialisation or profiting from the book, just to get Megrahi’s story on the record.

“There is new evidence within the book, and that’s what will be revealed today. It’s also the first time that we have had a wealth of material in Megrahi’s own words.

“He will not receive any form of payment for the book.”

[A further article in The Scotsman, which purports to disclose some of the evidence in the book and contains reactions from Lockerbie relatives, can be read here.  The Times's short report (behind the paywall) can be read here. A report in today’s Daily Mirror can be read here; the report in the Daily Record here; and the report in The Sun here. The Press Association news agency report can be read here. A report on the STV News website can be read here.]

Megrahi: the secret evidence

[This is the headline over an article (behind the paywall) in today’s edition of The Sunday Times.  It reads in part:]

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, will claim in a new book that crucial documents were withheld from his defence team to ensure he remained the chief suspect for the 1988 atrocity which killed 270 people.

In Megrahi — You Are My Jury: The Lockerbie Evidence, published tomorrow, the Libyan will disclose details of witness statements that were not heard at his trial in 1999.

Megrahi, who was allowed to return to Libya in 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, hopes his book will provide compelling evidence that he is not guilty of Britain’s worst terrorist attack.

It argues that, far from being an unrepentant terrorist, the Libyan was the “innocent victim of dirty politics, a flawed investigation and judicial folly”.

Much of it draws on the findings of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which recommended that his case be returned to the Appeal Court in 2007.

Their report has not been released publicly but was made available to the Libyan’s defence team. Megrahi is expected to reveal that statements made by Tony Gauci, the prosecution’s key witness, were never disclosed to his lawyers.

Gauci owned a shop in Malta where Megrahi allegedly purchased clothes that were wrapped around the Lockerbie bomb. Gauci’s testimony about the date when the clothing was purchased — December 7, 1988 — was crucial as that was the only day that Megrahi was known to be on the island.

Among the missing statements discovered by the SCCRC was one in which Gauci claimed his brother Paul was in the shop when the clothes were bought and helped the buyer carry the parcels to his car. It is claimed that, had Megrahi’s defence been aware of this, Paul Gauci would have been questioned and could have confirmed that Megrahi was not the buyer.

In another statement to Scottish police, Gauci said he “clearly” remembered an argument with his girlfriend on the day the clothes were purchased. Megrahi claims a failure to share this information denied his defence team a chance to interview the woman and corroborate the date.

The book also suggests false intelligence was passed by the Scottish authorities to German counterparts who were initially sceptical about Libya’s role in the atrocity.

A source close to the project said: “It’s a vast book and a lot of it is in forensic detail. If the case in the book is accepted, then the questions it raises about Scottish justice are very deep and very serious.”

The Crown Office, which maintains that Megrahi did not act alone in carrying out the terrorist attack, is preparing to send investigators to Libya in the hope of gathering fresh evidence to support his conviction and identify his accomplices.

Frank Mulholland QC, the lord advocate, met British relatives in London last week and revealed that the Crown Office had received “favourable” responses from Libya to a request for access to files held in Tripoli.

Also present at the meeting in Whitehall was Patrick Shearer, the chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway police, and two agents from the FBI.

Last night, Pamela Dix, who lost her brother Peter in the Lockerbie bombing, said: “The tragedy is still very distressing. I would far rather that new evidence was heard in a courtroom. The problem is none of it can be legally refuted and it will be his side of the story.”

John Ashton, a British journalist who wrote Megrahi’s book, said: “Abdelbaset and I are acutely aware of the anguish that the book might cause the victims’ relatives who believe him to be guilty. We simply wish them and the wider public to know all the important evidence that was available to us, most of which has been concealed from the relatives and was not aired at his trial.”

Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the Lockerbie bombing and believes Megrahi was wrongfully convicted, said: “I very much hope the book will have influence on Scottish public opinion and persuade ministers to hold an independent inquiry into Megrahi’s guilty verdict.”

The Crown Office said: “The only appropriate forum for the determination of guilt or innocence is the court.”


[A brief article in the Sunday Mail headed “Lockerbie bomber Megrahi 'forgives' witness who secured his conviction” can be read here.]

Megrahi book reveals new Lockerbie evidence

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of the Sunday Herald.  It reads as follows:]

Exclusive extracts of the authorised biography of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi will be published on heraldscotland.com from 10am on Monday.

The Herald's chief reporter, Lucy Adams, who has covered the Lockerbie story comprehensively and interviewed Megrahi in his family home after he returned to Tripoli, has seen an advance copy of the book.

She'll be revealing its key contents and analysing their significance for a case which has divided legal and public opinion across Scotland - and indeed the world.

The book, Megrahi: You are my Jury, The Lockerbie Evidence, has been written by John Ashton, a writer, researcher and TV producer who has studied the Lockerbie case for 18 years and was a researcher with Megrahi's legal team from 2006-9.  

Edinburgh-based publisher Birlinn is using this quote from Megrahi to promote the book: "You know me as the Lockerbie bomber. I know that I'm innocent. Here, for the first time, is my true story: how I came to be blamed for Britain's worst mass murder, my nightmare decade in prison and the truth about my controversial release. Please read it and decide for yourself. You are now my jury."

The publisher adds: "This long-awaited book argues that, far from being an unrepentant terrorist, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the innocent victim of dirty politics, a flawed investigation and judicial folly. It destroys the prosecution case and puts the Scottish criminal justice system in the dock... (and) makes a compelling argument that the murderers of the 270 Lockerbie victims were acting on behalf of an entirely different government, rather than Colonel Gaddafi and Libya."

The contents will be made public at a press conference in Edinburgh on Monday morning, which is also due to be attended by Megrahi campaigners Dr Jim Swire, the Rev John Mosey, and Iain McKie.

But for the first preview and analysis, come to heraldscotland.com from 10am on Monday.

Publication of Megrahi: You are my Jury

To coincide with the publication on Tuesday 28 February 2012 of John Ashton's book Megrahi: You are my Jury, various media broadcasts have been scheduled on Monday 27th.  BBC Radio Scotland has a feature at 1.15 pm GMT; BBC One Scotland has a half-hour television programme at 7.30 pm entitled Lockerbie - The Lost Evidence; and Aljazeera English at 8 pm has a one-hour programme entitled Lockerbie: Case Closed.

Megrahi, anger, and me

[This is the headline over an article by Kenneth Roy, editor of the Scottish Review, published yesterday on the Newsnet Scotland website.  It reads in part:]

Hey, I'm not a joiner. (…) Why, then, have I just accepted an invitation to join JFM – the Justice for Megrahi Committee? The one obvious route to refusal was that membership of this committee might compromise my independence as a six hours a week journalist, filling this space; it's often a useful get-out clause from any commitment to altruism or, for that matter, anything else.

In this case, however, it's hardly likely. I have been banging on about Megrahi for years. My views are not going to change in a hurry, if ever. That report of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission needs to be published, it needs to be published in full, it needs to be published pronto. Then and only then will the people of Scotland be able to judge for themselves the credibility of the prosecution case and the conduct of our justice system.

We paid for this report. It's a public document, one of the most important ever produced in Scotland, concerning the worst atrocity inflicted on these shores in peacetime and the deaths of 270 blameless people. But although we’re big enough to have paid for the report, it seems we are not big enough to be trusted with its contents. Important vested interests continue to obstruct its appearance.

Non-joining being bred in the bone, I still wouldn't have joined the Justice for Megrahi Committee. Two things tipped me over the edge. The first was driven by anger, the emotion that my adviser Seneca counsels me against. I can't help it, Seneca, I'm not like you; for the time being I have to live in this world.

Last Thursday, when we published a detailed positional paper from JFM with an accompanying editorial, all of 14 minutes elapsed before an iphone response from a Labour MSP pouring scorn on the Scottish Review's campaign for transparency in the Lockerbie case. Fourteen minutes, huh? Fourteen minutes in which to read and assimilate a complex document, and prepare a negative six-liner on your iphone – it's impressive. It could even tell us quite a lot about why the Labour Party hasn't been in power in Scotland for the last five years. They've all been too busy taking lessons in speed reading.

The second thing was more personal. One of the people on the Justice for Megrahi Committee is Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora on flight 103 and has been fighting for the truth ever since. I have discovered from years of interviewing them that, with few exceptiions, that is what victims yearn for and work towards: not revenge, not blood, but the truth. At the age of 76 Dr Swire goes on fighting for it, risking his life to enter the chaos that is Libya. Why wouldn't I join a committee with that noble man and do what little I can to help him?

So I've broken the habit of a lifetime and joined something. Fourteen minutes from now – maybe less – someone with an iphone will tell me I'm wrong. This time, I won't be counting.

[The Scottish Review has also published an article by Megrahi biographer John Ashton entitled The Crown case against Megrahi is about to sink without trace and another by Gerard Sinclair, the chief executive of the Scottish Criminal Cases review Commission.]

Lockerbie relatives meet Lord Advocate and police

[The following is an excerpt from a short report in today’s edition of The Herald:]


Scotland’s Lord Advocate met relatives of the UK victims of the Lockerbie bombing as the Crown Office said a request had been sent to the Libyan Government requesting access for police and prosecutors in the case.

Frank Mulholland QC, and the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Pat Shearer, met families in London.

The Libyan National Transitional Council agreed to allow Scottish police officers to travel to Libya.

[On the topic of Scottish police travelling to Libya, a longer report appears in the Belfast Telegraph.  It reads in part:]

A formal request has been sent to the Libyan Government requesting access to the country for police and prosecutors involved in the Lockerbie bombing investigation, the Crown Office said.

The investigators hope to examine information and documents relating to lines of inquiry.

The Libyan National Transitional Council has previously confirmed to the UK Government that it will assist the ongoing criminal investigation, and agreed to allow officers from Dumfries and Galloway Police to travel to Libya. (…)

Scotland's top law officer the Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland QC, and the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Pat Shearer, met UK families of the Lockerbie victims in London to update them on the development.

Scottish prosecutors and Scottish and US law enforcement representatives also attended the meeting.

The Crown Office said that as it remains a joint investigation, both Scottish and US investigators were "heavily involved" in preparing the request.

A further meeting with other UK families is scheduled to take place in the near future in Glasgow. 

Justice Committee hears Kenny MacAskill on SCCRC Megrahi disclosure Bill

[The following is an excerpt from the report on the BBC Democracy Live website of yesterday’s appearance before the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee of Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill:]

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the Criminal Cases Bill "confirms our commitment to be as open and transparent as possible" about the Lockerbie bomber's case.

Mr MacAskill was giving evidence to the Justice Committee on 21 February 2012.

The Scottish government's Criminal Cases [(Punishment and Review) (Scotland)] Bill could permit publication of information about the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who abandoned his second appeal days before he was sent home to Libya on compassionate grounds.

It would let the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) decide whether information it gathered and referred to the Appeal Court should be published.

At the Justice Committee on 7 February 2012, the Justice for Megrahi group said the Criminal Cases Bill "could create as many difficulties as it could solve".

The justice secretary told MSPs he disagreed with campaigners who believed it was possible for Scottish ministers to deal with the issue of publication of information relating to Megrahi's appeal through subordinate legislation.

He inisted the bill was "the most appropriate vehicle" to allow the SCCRC to release the information or not as it saw fit.

Mr MacAskill confirmed that UK Justice Secretary Ken Clarke was in discussions with the SCCRC about the case.

[A report in today’s edition of The Sun can be read here.]

Daily Mail article and John Ashton's response

Yesterday's edition of the Daily Mail carried an article headlined Lockerbie bomber accused of profiting from deathbed memoirs that "will protest his innocence". The subheadings give a flavour of the piece:
  Profits from book sales will go to charity that campaigns for his innocence

  Terminally-ill Lockerbie bomber still alive after being given just three months to live two-and-a-half years ago

  Released from prison on 'compassionate grounds'

  Could prove embarrassing for Labour and the Scottish government

Abdelbaset Megrahi's biographer John Ashton has responded to the Daily Mail article on the Megrahi: You are my Jury website.