Lockerbie families upset by SNP's 'crass' timing

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of The Times about the legal powers that have been granted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to put into the public domain material relating to Abdelbaset Megrahi's successful application to it. It is worth noting that not a single Lockerbie relative is quoted in the article complaining about the timing of the announcement. The only such complaint comes from the Scottish Conservatives' legal rent-a-quote, Paul McBride QC.

The article reads in part:]

The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission (SCCRC), which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice, had referred his case back to the courts in June 2007 after ruling that his conviction could have been unsafe.

Al-Megrahi claims that he was the victim of miscarriage of justice and has already published details of his appeal, including reports questioning the credibility of a key prosecution witness and suggestions that other witnesses were paid.

There had been pressure on the government to release the commission’s own documents relating to the appeal and yesterday Mr MacAskill announced that the SNP had passed an order allowing the commission to publish the documents in February. “The order laid today allows the SCCRC to disclose information it holds and it is now for them to decide what, if anything, they release.”

However, it is believed that the commission will not be able to reveal much detail, since those who submitted information must give consent to its release. Gerard Sinclair, the commission’s chief executive, indicated that human rights laws and data protection legislation could also prove a barrier to full disclosure.

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was one of the 270 people who died when the flight 108 exploded over Lockerbie, welcomed the decision to release the appeal documents but was concerned about how much information would be published, and warned against a “drip feed” approach.

“I just find it immensely frustrating to have to sit here in the middle and not know,” she said.

She was also disappointed that the Scottish government had failed to contact her and the families of the other victims before making the announcement.

“I would have preferred to have heard from the Scottish government instead of the media,” she said. (...)

Robert Brown, the justice spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, added: “The last thing we want is for this to turn into a trial by media. If possible, a way must be found whereby the information held by the SCCRC, and the issues raised by them for the Appeal Court, can be properly and judicially tested.”

A spokesman for the Scottish government defended the decision, saying: “It is to everyone’s benefit to know if information can be put into the public domain regardless of their views, this was done as soon as practically possible.”

Virtually nobody believes the true facts about the destruction of Pan Am 103 have been revealed

Five years ago on this date an item headed Why the Lockerbie families deserve an inquiry was posted on this blog. The families still deserve one. The item reads as follows:

[This is the heading over an editorial in the current edition of The Sunday Telegraph. It reads as follows:]

Telegraph View: There are strong grounds for a thorough and independent investigation into Britain's worst terrorist atrocity

Lockerbie is a name burned into the consciousness of the British public. Like Omagh and other places associated with atrocious terrorist outrages, it retains a grim resonance, more than 20 years after this vicious mass murder that saw 270 innocent people, including 51 British citizens, subjected to an exceptionally cruel death. To this day it remains the worst act of terrorism perpetrated on British soil. For the victims' families it is a wound that can never heal. The trauma would be alleviated, however, if the bereaved and the wider public could confidently feel that the circumstances had been investigated to the core and the truth established.

Today, therefore, we are proud to support the campaign being launched by relations of the victims to demand an independent inquiry into who ordered and carried out the bombing. This weekend, the families have written to Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, requesting such a step. The demand is well founded: the Crown Office, the prosecuting authority in Scotland, is already pursuing fresh inquiries, following the withdrawal of a second appeal by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, in order to secure his release.

Particularly welcome is the assurance by Scottish authorities that this is no token gesture, but a thorough investigation, focusing partly on forensic evidence and with a full-time team of detectives assigned to it. The fact that the Scottish judiciary had given Megrahi permission to appeal for a second time testifies that experienced judges believed there was merit in further consideration of the case. This businesslike response by prosecutors and police requires to be supported by the Government ordering an independent inquiry.

Virtually nobody believes that the true facts about the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 have been revealed. Alongside the inevitable conspiracy theories, there are substantive allegations regarding possible Iranian and Palestinian involvement that have never been properly investigated, not to mention a suspicious break-in that occurred at Heathrow Airport 17 hours before Flight 103 took off from there.

Potential scrutiny of such evidence was aborted by Megrahi's abandonment of his appeal. An independent inquiry would effectively test his appeal in absentia.

It would also go some way to restoring the reputations of the Scottish and British justice systems. The decision taken by the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, to release Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds and allow him to return to Libya, was the wrong one. The role of the British Government – the murky rumours of oil-related deals – was shameful. American officials remain angry at how the matter was handled.

If the authorities had investigated the case more rigorously and placed all the evidence in the public domain, an inquiry would not now be necessary. Considering the history of obfuscation surrounding the Lockerbie case, however, the details must be brought into the light of day. Nobody is asking for an open-ended, Bloody Sunday-style inquiry; but a full, detailed and public investigation of all the available evidence is now essential, if any kind of closure is to be achieved for the victims' families and the country.

[The same newspaper contains a report headed "Police relaunch Lockerbie bombing investigation" which reads in part:]

Authorities secretly ordered the re-examination of all evidence following the decision by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop his appeal against his conviction for mass murder. (...)

The Sunday Telegraph has seen the email sent by the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecuting authority, to British relatives of victims informing them of the new investigation, which includes a review of forensic evidence.

In the email, Lindsey Miller, a senior Procurator Fiscal who was involved in preparing evidence for Megrahi's trial, wrote: "Throughout the investigation we have, at various times, taken stock of the evidence as a whole with a view to identifying further lines of inquiry that can be pursued.

"Now that the appeal proceedings are at an end a further review of the case is under way and several potential lines of inquiry, both through a 'desktop' (paper) exercise and consultation with forensic science colleagues are being considered.

"You will of course appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to elaborate on these lines but please be assured that this is not simply paying lip service to the idea of an 'open case'."

The investigation is understood to be headed by Detective Chief Inspector Michael Dalgleish, a senior officer who was part of the original team that brought the case against Megrahi. Four detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police, which covers the Lockerbie area, are working full-time on the case. (...)

Pam Dix, whose brother Peter died in the explosion, said last night: "This new investigation gives us new hope. It has to be right that police don't see this as concluded.

"Even if Megrahi was guilty, he could not possibly have carried out the bombing unaided and if he is not guilty then not a single one of the conspirators of the Lockerbie bombing have been brought to justice.

"This email implies they are looking at all the forensics again and that has to be a good thing. Police have always said the case is open and not closed as such but they have never said they are looking at all the evidence afresh."

[Note by RB: As the editorial in The Sunday Telegraph recognises, what is needed is an independent inquiry. But the police open case review is at least a start. However, it is difficult to disagree with Dr Jim Swire, as quoted on the heraldscotland website:

“I think that if they are really going to a meaningful investigation then that is all well and good and long overdue. I would be all for it.

“But if it is just a dodge to prevent an investigation into why the lives of those killed were not protected then I would be livid."

As regards the scope of this investigation, the Crown Office is quoted in Scotland on Sunday as saying:

"There is no question of reopening the case against Megrahi. The open case concerns only the involvement of others with Megrahi in the murder of 270 people and the Crown will continue to pursue such lines of inquiry that become available.

"The trial court accepted the Crown's position that Mr Megrahi acted on in furtherance of the Libyan intelligence services and did not act alone. 

"The Crown stood ready, willing and able to support his conviction throughout the appeal process which he abandoned."]

Man who could hold answers to Lockerbie atrocity found in Qatar

[This is the headline over a report published today on the website of the Birmingham Post.  It reads in part:]

The man who the father of a Midland Lockerbie victim believes could hold crucial answers about the atrocity has been traced to a luxury resort in Qatar.

Musa Kusa is believed to have been an intelligence officer at the time of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb in which 270 people were killed.

He made a high-profile defection to Britain in March and was interviewed by police and Scottish prosecutors investigating the bombing.

He left the country following an EU decision to lift sanctions against him, meaning he no longer faces travel restrictions or an asset freeze. (...)

The Foreign Office said Kusa was a “private individual” who had been interviewed voluntarily.

Dr Jim Swire, from Worcestershire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the bombing, said that if anyone could offer any insight into the “huge questions still unanswered” on Libya’s role in Lockerbie, it would be Mr Kusa.

He said: “When I met Musa Kusa in Libya in 1991 it was clear to me he was the guy who was central to the Gaddafi administration.

“He could tell us just as much as Gaddafi about Lockerbie as he was at the core of the regime.

“He was a very, very key figure and we need answers as to why he was allowed to fly back and any probing over his crimes should be done by the International Criminal Court.”

Pamela Dix, who lost her 35-year-old brother Peter in the atrocity, said she was “incensed” at Mr Kusa being allowed to leave Britain in the first place.

She said: “We cannot turn a politically pragmatic blind eye.

“I do not know what Musa Kusa knows or does not know about Lockerbie but he needs to come back to answer those questions.

“I condemn the attitude of the UK Government in the strongest possible terms. A political hands-off attitude is inappropriate.”

We still need a Lockerbie inquiry

[This is the heading over an article on The Guardian's website by Pamela Dix, whose brother was one of those killed in the Lockerbie disaster. It reads as follows:]

For 20 years, UK Families Flight 103 has been campaigning for a full independent inquiry into the events leading up to and after the Lockerbie plane bombing. In the request for an inquiry, the families group has clearly identified the areas of concern and the questions that need to be answered. This request is separate from the need for an independent, criminal investigation to bring to justice those responsible.

The fact that so far the outcome of the criminal investigation has not been conclusive is disappointing. Widespread concern around the safety of the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has raised a number of issues. There are also issues about the division of responsibility between Westminster and Holyrood and whether it was right to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds. But everyone is in agreement that whether or not he is guilty, others must have been involved. We hope that the fact that the criminal investigation is to continue will contribute to our quest for the truth.

The circumstances of the trial, the appeal and the Scottish judicial process have prompted calls for a separate inquiry. There is an argument that any such investigation is the responsibility of the Scottish parliament, with the powers to call upon the UK government, and its officers, to explain its position.

However, this is quite separate from the families' continuing call for an independent, wider inquiry. Some of the issues that we wish to see included in such an inquiry relate to national security, foreign policy and transport safety – all responsibilities that since devolution remain within the remit of the UK government. It is galling to listen to David Miliband's off the cuff response to our request for an inquiry: that the biggest mass murder in the UK had nothing to do with his government. If this were the case, why did Robin Cook, Jack Straw and Tony Blair have ongoing discussions with us about a possible public inquiry, both before and after devolution? At no stage was it suggested that this was a matter for the devolved Scottish parliament.

Underpinning our request for this inquiry is our belief that unless we understand and acknowledge the complicated series of events that led to the decision to put a bomb on Flight 103, no lessons will be learned. The fact that Straw told us personally that he would have instigated an inquiry at the time if he had been in a position to do so does not lessen our frustration in failing to get ministers to accept what must be done.

Governments need to understand the tenacity of relatives involved in such tragedies. There have been numerous occasions when we could have caved in under the lack of interest, political pragmatism or sheer ignorance of those in authority. Yet nearly 21 years after the explosion that killed 270 dearly loved people, we have not lost heart that finally – surely – the fourth prime minister to hold that office since the disaster will do the right thing. This is why relatives of those killed on Pan Am 103 stood at the gates of Downing Street to hand over a letter requesting the prime minister, Gordon Brown, to instigate a full public inquiry into the circumstances of the destruction of the aircraft.

Libya's NTC says Lockerbie case closed

[This is the headline over a report published this evening by the Reuters news agency.  It reads in part:]

The investigation into the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland is closed and Tripoli will not release more evidence that could lead to others being charged, Libya's interim leaders said on Monday.

Scottish prosecutors had asked Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) to give them access to papers or witnesses that could implicate more suspects, possibly including deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

However, Libya's interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi turned them down, telling reporters: "The case is closed." (...)

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was among those killed in the attack, told Reuters in an emailed statement: "Suggesting that the Lockerbie case is closed is ludicrous.

"I am not surprised that the new interim government might want to avoid getting involved, but this is a miserable attempt to avoid a perfectly reasonable request for any information or evidence that there might be in Libya. Perhaps there is nothing."

No one at Scotland's public prosecution service was available to comment on the Libyan minister's statement. 

[A later edition of the same Reuters report contains the following:]

But the Foreign Office in London said it had talked with the NTC late on Monday and it had promised continued cooperation.

"NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil has already assured the prime minister that the Libyan authorities will cooperate with the UK in this and other ongoing investigations," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"Having spoken with the NTC this evening, we understand that this remains the case. The police investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and the police should follow the evidence wherever it leads them."

[A report published on Tuesday 27th on the website of The Wall Street Journal contains the following:]

Libyan Minister of Justice and Human Rights Mr. Mohammed Al-Alagi said at a news conference that he considered the case closed (...)

Mr. Alagi, the interim justice minister, said after the news conference that Libya would in fact consider cooperating on some aspects of the Lockerbie bombing, in a sign of further confusion within the ranks of the interim leadership.

A spokeswoman from the FCO said NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil has already assured Prime Minister David Cameron that the new Libyan authorities will cooperate with the U.K. on Lockerbie and other ongoing investigations.

"Having spoken with the NTC this evening, we understand that this remains the case," the spokeswoman said.  

[The Chinese Xinhua news agency's account of the news conference contains the following:]

Also, the NTC said Monday the convict of the notorious December 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie of Scotland was not to be put on trial again as the case is already closed.

Despite Britain's recent requests for assistance from the new Libyan authorities to re-open the Lockerbie investigation, Mohammed al-Allaqi, chief of justice and human rights issues of the NTC, told a press conference in Tripoli that, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the main convict of Lockerbie bombing, was already tried, convicted and punished, and he was released with the consent of the British government on humanitarian basis. 

So the issue may not be tried twice, that is the basic rule of justice, said al-Allaqi.

Why the Lockerbie families deserve an inquiry

[This is the heading over an editorial in the current edition of The Sunday Telegraph. It reads as follows:]

Telegraph View: There are strong grounds for a thorough and independent investigation into Britain's worst terrorist atrocity

Lockerbie is a name burned into the consciousness of the British public. Like Omagh and other places associated with atrocious terrorist outrages, it retains a grim resonance, more than 20 years after this vicious mass murder that saw 270 innocent people, including 51 British citizens, subjected to an exceptionally cruel death. To this day it remains the worst act of terrorism perpetrated on British soil. For the victims' families it is a wound that can never heal. The trauma would be alleviated, however, if the bereaved and the wider public could confidently feel that the circumstances had been investigated to the core and the truth established.

Today, therefore, we are proud to support the campaign being launched by relations of the victims to demand an independent inquiry into who ordered and carried out the bombing. This weekend, the families have written to Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, requesting such a step. The demand is well founded: the Crown Office, the prosecuting authority in Scotland, is already pursuing fresh inquiries, following the withdrawal of a second appeal by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, in order to secure his release.

Particularly welcome is the assurance by Scottish authorities that this is no token gesture, but a thorough investigation, focusing partly on forensic evidence and with a full-time team of detectives assigned to it. The fact that the Scottish judiciary had given Megrahi permission to appeal for a second time testifies that experienced judges believed there was merit in further consideration of the case. This businesslike response by prosecutors and police requires to be supported by the Government ordering an independent inquiry.

Virtually nobody believes that the true facts about the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103 have been revealed. Alongside the inevitable conspiracy theories, there are substantive allegations regarding possible Iranian and Palestinian involvement that have never been properly investigated, not to mention a suspicious break-in that occurred at Heathrow Airport 17 hours before Flight 103 took off from there.

Potential scrutiny of such evidence was aborted by Megrahi's abandonment of his appeal. An independent inquiry would effectively test his appeal in absentia.

It would also go some way to restoring the reputations of the Scottish and British justice systems. The decision taken by the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, to release Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds and allow him to return to Libya, was the wrong one. The role of the British Government – the murky rumours of oil-related deals – was shameful. American officials remain angry at how the matter was handled.

If the authorities had investigated the case more rigorously and placed all the evidence in the public domain, an inquiry would not now be necessary. Considering the history of obfuscation surrounding the Lockerbie case, however, the details must be brought into the light of day. Nobody is asking for an open-ended, Bloody Sunday-style inquiry; but a full, detailed and public investigation of all the available evidence is now essential, if any kind of closure is to be achieved for the victims' families and the country.

[The same newspaper contains a report headed "Police relaunch Lockerbie bombing investigation" which reads in part:]

Authorities secretly ordered the re-examination of all evidence following the decision by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop his appeal against his conviction for mass murder. (...)

The Sunday Telegraph has seen the email sent by the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecuting authority, to British relatives of victims informing them of the new investigation, which includes a review of forensic evidence.

In the email, Lindsey Miller, a senior Procurator Fiscal who was involved in preparing evidence for Megrahi's trial, wrote: "Throughout the investigation we have, at various times, taken stock of the evidence as a whole with a view to identifying further lines of inquiry that can be pursued.

"Now that the appeal proceedings are at an end a further review of the case is under way and several potential lines of inquiry, both through a 'desktop' (paper) exercise and consultation with forensic science colleagues are being considered.

"You will of course appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to elaborate on these lines but please be assured that this is not simply paying lip service to the idea of an 'open case'."

The investigation is understood to be headed by Detective Chief Inspector Michael Dalgleish, a senior officer who was part of the original team that brought the case against Megrahi. Four detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police, which covers the Lockerbie area, are working full-time on the case. (...)

Pam Dix, whose brother Peter died in the explosion, said last night: "This new investigation gives us new hope. It has to be right that police don't see this as concluded.

"Even if Megrahi was guilty, he could not possibly have carried out the bombing unaided and if he is not guilty then not a single one of the conspirators of the Lockerbie bombing have been brought to justice.

"This email implies they are looking at all the forensics again and that has to be a good thing. Police have always said the case is open and not closed as such but they have never said they are looking at all the evidence afresh."

[Note by RB: As the editorial in The Sunday Telegraph recognises, what is needed is an independent inquiry. But the police open case review is at least a start. However, it is difficult to disagree with Dr Jim Swire, as quoted on the heraldscotland website:

“I think that if they are really going to a meaningful investigation then that is all well and good and long overdue. I would be all for it.

“But if it is just a dodge to prevent an investigation into why the lives of those killed were not protected then I would be livid."

As regards the scope of this investigation, the Crown Office is quoted in Scotland on Sunday as saying:

"There is no question of reopening the case against Megrahi. The open case concerns only the involvement of others with Megrahi in the murder of 270 people and the Crown will continue to pursue such lines of inquiry that become available.

"The trial court accepted the Crown's position that Mr Megrahi acted on in furtherance of the Libyan intelligence services and did not act alone.

"The Crown stood ready, willing and able to support his conviction throughout the appeal process which he abandoned."]

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.]

Justice Secretary under fire as bomber defies three-month prognosis

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

Three months after he was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government, the Lockerbie bomber continues to defy predictions about the likely course of his illness.

When, on August 20, Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary announced that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, was suffering from terminal prostate cancer, he suggested that he had about three months left to live.

Yesterday, however, al-Megrahi, the only person to be convicted over the 1988 Pan Am flight 103 atrocity, which claimed 270 lives, was still fighting the illness in a Libyan hospital. The 12-week time span is crucial because only prisoners expected to survive three months or less are eligible for compassionate release.

Last night Mr MacAskill was under pressure again as victims’ relatives questioned his decision, and said they felt “hurt and betrayed”.

The Times understands that al-Megrahi remains a patient at the Tripoli Medical Centre, where he was admitted about ten days after he returned to Libya. Although sources were not able to say how ill he is, his family suggested that his prognosis was poor. His elder brother, Mohammed, said he was unable to comment on his health but confirmed he was “still in hospital taking heavy treatments”.

A Libyan official said that al-Megrahi’s will to live was probably stronger “in the bosom of his family than in a prison cell”, but emphasised: “The outcome is not in any doubt.”

A prominent British cancer specialist, who asked not to be named, said, “no one should be remotely surprised” that the Lockerbie bomber was still alive. Three months was merely the average life expectancy of someone with prostate cancer as advanced as al-Megrahi’s, he said. Some patients would live longer while others would die sooner.

Al-Megrahi has not been seen in public since September 9, when he was briefly taken into a conference room inside the hospital to meet a delegation of African Union parliamentarians. He was in a wheelchair, coughed repeatedly and said nothing during his ten-minute appearance. Observers said he looked very frail. (...)

Tony Kelly, al-Megrahi’s lawyer in Scotland, refused to comment on his client’s health. Under the terms of release, East Renfrewshire Council receives a monthly report from al-Megrahi’s doctors, and its criminal justice officials speak to him periodically by video link or telephone, but a council spokesman refused to discuss the bomber’s health.

Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, which represents US families, said he was not surprised that al-Megrahi lives on.

“We never believed he was as sick as he said he was,” he said. “They had been saying for over a year he had one foot in the grave.”

He said the families felt “hurt and betrayed” by the Scottish government and claimed that the Libyan’s survival would intensify those feelings.

Pamela Dix, of Woking, Surrey, whose brother Peter was killed in the attack, urged the authorities to provide more information about al-Megrahi’s condition. She said that speculation over his condition could detract from their efforts to force a public inquiry into the Lockerbie affair.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: “The Justice Secretary made his decision taking into account a report dated August 10 from the Director of Health and Care for the Scottish Prison Service which indicated that a three-month prognosis was then a reasonable estimate.”

• Campaigners including Noam Chomsky and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have sent an open letter to the United Nations, calling for an extensive UN-run public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. The letter, addressed to the President of the General Assembly of the UN, says that the decision by al-Megrahi to drop his appeal before being freed on compassionate grounds ended “one of the last best hopes” of discovering the truth about the tragedy.

Margaret Thatcher "vetoed Lockerbie inquiry"

[What follows is an item from the Memory Lane column of the Bromsgrove Advertiser:]

25 years ago. December 7, 1989

Bromsgrove doctor Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, travelled to London to hear a public inquiry would not be held.

Dr Swire, along with other relatives of the 270 killed, had a two hour meeting with Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson, who gave them no hope that an inquiry would ever take place.

[Here is what Tam Dalyell has written about this:]

When the relatives went to see the then UK Transport Secretary, Cecil Parkinson, he told them he did agree that there should be a public inquiry. Going out of the door as they were leaving, as an afterthought he said: 'Just one thing. I must clear permission for a public inquiry with colleagues'. Dr Swire, John Mosey and Pamela Dix, the secretary of the Lockerbie relatives, imagined that it was a mere formality. A fortnight later, sheepishly, Parkinson informed them that colleagues had not agreed. At that time there was only one colleague who could possibly have told Parkinson that he was forbidden to do something in his own department. That was the Prime Minister. Only she could have told Parkinson to withdraw his offer, certainly, in my opinion, knowing the man, given in good faith.

Second anniversary of death of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

[Today marks the second anniversary of the death in Tripoli of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. A statement issued by Justice for Megrahi at the time can be read here. Tam Dalyell’s obituary of Megrahi, published two days later in The Independent, reads as follows:]

Acres of newsprint have appeared in recent years, covering various rather separate theories about the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber.

If I thought for one moment that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was guilty as charged in the mass murder of 270 innocent people in the crash of the Pan Am airliner "Maid of the Seas" at Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, I would not have agreed to pen an obituary – let alone an affectionate one.

My settled conviction, as a "Professor of Lockerbie Studies" over a 22-year period, is that neither Megrahi nor Libya had any role in the destruction of Pan Am 103. The Libyans were cynically scapegoated in 1990, two years after the crash, by a US government which had decided to go to war with Iraq and did not want complications with Syria and Iran, which had harboured the real perpetrators of the terrible deed.

Libya and its "operatives", Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, only came into the frame at a very late date. In my informed opinion, Megrahi has been the victim of one of the most spectacular (and expensive) miscarriages of justice in history. The assertion of innocence is confirmed in the 497 pages of John Ashton's scholarly and remarkable book, Megrahi: You Are My Jury – The Lockerbie Evidence, published by Birlinn.

This is an opinion shared by the senior and experienced solicitor Eddie McKechnie, who successfully represented Fhimah at Zeist in Holland, where a Scottish court was assembled to try the two accused under rules conducted by the jurisdiction of the laws of Scotland, and who took on Megrahi's case following his conviction; by Tony Kelly, the immensely thorough solicitor who has represented him for the past six years; by the bereaved relatives Dr Jim Swire and the Reverend John Mosey, who lost daughters and attended the entire Zeist trial; by Professor Robert Black, Emeritus Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh, and Lockerbie-born; and by many others in legal Edinburgh.

Furthermore, the Scottish Criminal Review Commission, in the course of its 800-page report, says (paragraph 24, page 708): "The Crown deprived the defence of the opportunity to take such steps as it might have deemed necessary – so the defence's case was damaged." It concluded: "The commission's view is that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred."

Megrahi was not in Malta on the date the clothing, so crucial in the whole Lockerbie saga, was bought from the shopkeeper Tony Gauci. The proprietor of Mary's House identified a number of different people, including Abu Talb, who appeared at the trial to deny his part in the bombing.

Talb was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command and is now serving a life sentence in Sweden for the 1985 bombings in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. These discrepancies were part of the reason why the Scottish criminal review commission concluded that there could have been a miscarriage of justice; another was the unexplained payment of $10m from Iranian sources into the coffers of the Popular Front.

The testimony of Lesley Atkinson, who knew Megrahi well in Tripoli, is interesting. She is the wife of Neville Atkinson, who, in 1972, left a career as a night-fighter pilot in the Royal Navy to take up a position as personal pilot to the president of Libya, Colonel Gadaffi, until 1982. "Megrahi was polite and friendly and worked for Libyan Arab Airlines," Mrs Atkinson told me. "Of course, lots of people who worked for LAA were connected to the security services and I do not doubt that he was one of them. We knew him both at work and at the Beach Club – he was a normal, nice guy. I cannot imagine that he would ever have dreamt of planting a bomb on an airliner. He just would not have done that to passengers."

Eddie McKechnie described Megrahi as a cultured man doing a job for his country, and certainly not a mass-murderer. Had he not been given extremely bad advice not to appear in the witness box Megrahi would have revealed the truth – that he was a sanctions-buster, travelling the world to find spare parts for the Libyan oil industry and Libyan Arab Airlines. This role was confirmed to me by Colonel Gadaffi, when, as leader of the Inter-Parliamentary Union delegation to Libya in March 2001, I saw him in his tent outside Sirte. Gaddafi's own knowledge or involvement in Lockerbie is a different matter.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi was born in 1952 and educated in Tripoli and in the Engineering Faculty of Benghazi University. He became involved in the Ministry of Trade, and like many other officials, certainly did so in the intelligence services. He served as the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines and as director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli. A genuine believer in what the young Gaddafi was trying to achieve, and in the Great Jamariyah, Megrahi was happy to put his talents at the service of the state. Where else in Africa is there no hint of personal corruption among the leadership, he asked me! He had good relations with engineers at Brown and Root, I was told by their chairman and managing director, Sir Richard Morris (1980-90). Brown and Root was the contractor for the huge irrigation projects in Cyrenerica, south of Benghazi, the man-made river bringing water to desert areas that had been fertile in Roman times.

He was understandably proud of the traditional skills associated with his people. On one occasion, when I visited him in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow and told him that I had been to Leptis Magna, he responded: "You know that my Tripolitanian ancestors were the artists in stone, responsible for work throughout the Empire, not least in Rome itself!" Had the judges had the opportunity to get to know Megrahi, as I knew him, they could never have arrived at the verdict of "guilty" – at most, the good Scots legal term "not proven".

After Zeist, Fhimah, represented by the aggressively formidable barrister Richard Keen QC, was cleared and returned to a hero's welcome in Tripoli. Fhimah talked with knowledge and pride, as did Megrahi, about the wonderful sight of Sabbratah and the glories of the Greek colonial city at Cyrene.

Meanwhile, Megrahi was incarcerated in Barlinnie Prison. I was not his only visitor there and in Greenock who came away with a favourable opinion. Dr Swire, who lost his daughter Flora, a medical student at the University of Nottingham, told me: "On meeting Abdelbaset in Greenock prison, I found him charming, rational, not given to anger or bluster. He made it obvious that his first priority was to clear his name before returning to his much-loved family in Tripoli.

"I saw him [in Scotland] for the last time just before Christmas 2008, when, he, a devout Muslim, gave me a Christmas card in which he asked me and my family to pray for him and his family. That card is one of my most precious possessions.

"This meeting was before he could have known just how closely death loomed. I cannot criticise his apparently voluntary decision to spend his last months on earth with his family, above the priority of clearing his name."

I know that in some uninformed quarters, Dr Swire's views are regarded as eccentric. But it is the other British relatives who have studied the position in depth, such as Martin Cadman, who lost his son Bill; Pamela Dix, who lost her brother; and the Reverend John Mosey, who lost a daughter, have arrived at precisely the same conclusions about Megrahi's innocence. Unlike some American relatives, they have bothered to make exhaustive studies of the detail.

In my opinion, whatever Gordon Brown, Kenny MacAskill, Alec Salmond and Jack Straw – all fundamentally decent human beings – may feel they have to say in public due to pressure, and wickedness in Washington and in the Crown Office in Edinburgh, which, above all, did not want their misdeeds exposed by the truth, they all knew that they were acquiescing in the release of an innocent man. I am not quite so sure that Fhimah did not have an inkling about potentially explosive material on its way to the Bekaa valley.

Even in his final hours, controversy never deserted Megrahi. The Libyan authorities were absolutely justified in declining to extradite him, both for reasons of international law and more importantly, that he was not guilty as charged of the Lockerbie crime – also the considered opinion of Dr Hans Koechler, who attended Megrahi's trial as an official UN observer and has examined his appeal process in Scotland.

As James Cusick, who has followed the twists and turns of the Lockerbie saga for many years as a highly informed journalist, wrote in The Independent on Tuesday 30 August, "The truth behind the Lockerbie bombing remains enmeshed in diplomatic gains."

My last sight of Abdelbaset was on TV on 3 October, attended by Mrs Megrahi, with tubes galore, thanking Dr Swire in gentle tones for trying to furnish necessary drugs and hissing out that there were many liars at Zeist. So there were.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, intelligence officer: born Tripoli, Libya 1 April 1952; married Aisha (four sons, one daughter); died 20 May 2012

[It is to be hoped, even if it cannot be confidently expected, that before the third anniversary of Megrahi's death his conviction may again be before the High Court of Justiciary for review.]

Terror victims respond to UN's report on their rights with caution

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

Victims of terror attacks welcome the UN's call for greater recognition, but remain sceptical over compensation terms

A report by drawn up by UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, details of which have been obtained by The Observer, proposes wide-ranging improvements in the legal treatment of those injured in terrorist attacks around the world, including an automatic right to compensation. (...)

Pamela Dix, Executive Director of Disaster Action, supporting those caught up in terrorism or disaster, began campaigning after her brother Peter died aboard Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988. "If you had suggested 23 years ago that I would still be fighting the government on all fronts for appropriate recognition, trying to get politicians to deliver on promises, I would never have believed it. You don't realise the limitations of the system until you find yourself in that position." She welcomed a recognition of the right to form groups.

Ben Emmerson, who wrote the report, said victims' stories should be at the core of anti-terrorism strategies. "Over the past decade, international human rights law has undergone a crisis of public and political confidence. By making it clear that the law is there to protect the victims, and not just those who are suspected of terrorism, the international community can start to restore those basic principles of human rights law that have taken such a battering," he said.

[A further article in The Observer giving more details of the content of the UN report can be read here.]

UK Court quest for Lockerbie facts

[This is the heading over an item dated 14 May 1998 on The Pan Am 103 Crash Website. The subheading reads “Ian Black on a mother's search for truth behind PanAm tragedy” which is a strong indication that the article was published in The Guardian, though I can find no trace of it on the newspaper’s website. It reads as follows:]

The mother of a British victim of the Lockerbie disaster is going to the High Court after failing to force an inquest to reveal more about the case.

Nearly 10 years after PanAm flight 103 exploded, killing 270 people, Elizabeth Wright, a London psychiatrist, is seeking judicial review of the decision of a Sussex coroner that he could not conduct an inquest on her son Andrew.

Andrew Gillies-Wright, then 24, was flying to New York for Christmas when he died on December 21, 1988. He was cremated and his ashes interred in South Lancing, West Sussex. Dr Wright, like other Lockerbie relatives seeking movement after years of impasse, agreed to act as a test case, but was told "the lawfully cremated remains of a person (that is that person's ashes) do not constitute 'a body' for the purpose of... jurisdiction."

The British families want an inquest to raise questions which were not answered in the Scottish fatal accident inquiry in Dumfries.Those include events on the ground after the incident, whether intelligence agencies had warned of an attack, and how it was that initial suspicions that Iran, Syria or Palestinians were responsible gave way to charges against Libya.

Gareth Peirce, Dr Wright's solicitor, said: "There is potentially clear and compelling evidence setting out a scenario so different from the one that has been officially presented that it's a continuing national and international disgrace that it remains hidden, and that it falls to the families of the victims to unravel it."

Behind the legal arguments being prepared by Ms Peirce and Michael Mansfield, QC, lies the pain of bereaved families whose hope of seeing justice is diminishing almost a decade after the crime. "It shows what sort of position we find ourselves in when we have to discuss whether a cremated human being is a body," said Pam Dix, spokesperson for UK Families Flight 103.

She added: "We were not satisfied with the fatal accident inquiry, and we see the inquest as one way to further our quest to find out exactly what happened... We want information, not blame.

"We know intelligence won't be openly discussed in any court, but we would like to see how far we could go in getting these matters aired."

Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, died in the bombing, returned from Libya last month with "strong assurances" that the suspects would be handed over for trial in a neutral country. He accused the Government of "following slavishly in America's slipstream", despite the comment by Nelson Mandela that no nation should be "complainant, prosecutor and judge".

Roger Stone, the West Sussex coroner, wrote after refusing an inquest on Mr Gillies-Wright: "I hope, given time, that Dr Wright and other members of the family will find it possible to come to terms with their son's tragic death and take comfort from the loving memories they no doubt hold of him."

[RB: If a judicial review was in fact applied for (on which I can find no information) it clearly did not succeed.]