Lockerbie victims' relatives join with Megrahi family in seeking review of conviction

[What follows is the text of a press briefing issued by Aamer Anwar following this morning’s press conference:]

When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, 270 people from 21 countries perished and it remains the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed in the UK.

Its consequences continue to reverberate round the world and yet after a quarter of a century, the truth remains elusive.

The application being lodged later this morning with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) seeks to overturn the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for murder.

The application is submitted on behalf of:-

i)                    Dr Jim Swire, Rev’d John F Mosey and 22 other British relatives of passengers who died on board Pan Am Flight 103.

ii)                  I can also advise that the six immediate family members of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi have also instructed me to make the application.

The Commission has been requested not to release the names of the Megrahi family given serious concerns for their safety in the current highly volatile situation in Libya.

British family members apart from Dr Jim Swire and Rev John F. Mosey have also requested that their details are not released into the public domain.

The Commission determined on the 28th June 2007 that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi may have suffered a miscarriage of justice in relation to his conviction and identified six grounds for referring the case to the High Court. We have asked the Commission to reconfirm these six grounds.  

We have also requested the Commission add the Grounds of Appeal and supporting documentation already submitted to the High Court in connection with the second appeal (See http://www.megrahimystory.net/)

We have also requested that the Commission consider referring the case:

(a)   On the ground of the Crown’s non-disclosure to the defence of evidence relating to the difference in metallurgical composition between the fragment of circuit board PT35b and the circuit boards in the timers supplied by MEBO to Libya. Put simply the timer claimed by the Crown to be responsible for the bombing cannot be possible.

(b)   On the ground of the evidence uncovered which demonstrates that the bomb suitcase was already in Pan Am 103 luggage container AVE4041 before the feeder flight from Frankfurt arrived at Heathrow with, as the Crown contended and the trial court accepted, a suitcase from Malta which contained the bomb.

Special circumstances

The Commission have been asked to address the issue of whether it is in the interests of justice to refer the case to the High Court for a further appeal.

Despite the hysteria that greeted the release of Mr al-Megrahi many were unaware that the case had been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the SCCRC in 2007.

Its chairman Graham Forbes at the time said:-

"The Commission is of the view, based upon our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the tri al court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice."

The case of Abdelbasset Al- Megrahi has been described as the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.A reversal of the verdict would mean that the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom would stand exposed as having lived a monumental lie for 25 years and having imprisoned a man they knew to be innocent for ten years.

The Appeal was commenced but following the diagnosis of terminal cancer it was suddenly abandoned in 2009. The application being lodged this morning deals with the circumstances that lead to Mr Megrahi abandoning his appeal.

i)                    To date both the British Government and Scottish Government have claimed that they played no role in pressuring Mr  Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. However the evidence submitted to the Commission today claims that this is fundamentally untrue.

ii)                  It is submitted that there is evidence which will show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft.

iii)                Mr Megrahi was convicted on the word of a Maltese shop owner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in multiple statements and failed to recognise him in the courtroom.

iv)                New evidence claims that the fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, "discovered" in the Scottish countryside could not have been responsible for the bombing.

v)                  New evidence claims the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey in Malta before it was ‘transferred’ through two airports undetected to Pan Am Flight 103.

vi)                There is a multitude of serious question marks over material evidence, and most worryingly, allegations of the Crown’s non-disclosure of evidence which could have been key to the defence.

vii)              The fundamental question for the Commission is whether it regards it as in the interests of justice to refer a case back to the High Court where the convicted person himself had commenced an appeal on a SCCRC reference and then chosen to abandon it?

The answer might depend on the precise circumstances in which the appellant came to abandon his appeal.

Mr Megrahi's terminal illness; the fact that prisoner transfer was not open while the appeal was ongoing; and whether Mr Megrahi had no way of knowing that Kenny MacAskill would ultimately opt for compassionate release rather than prisoner transfer, or as is alleged that he was led to believe that he would not be released unless he dropped his appeal.

viii)            Documents have claimed that Scottish police officers and FBI agents had discussed as early as September 1989 ‘an offer of unlimited money to the Maltese shop keeper Tony Gauci.

If it is unacceptable to offer bribes, inducements or rewards to any witness in a routine murder trial in Glasgow then it should have been unacceptable to have done it in the biggest case of mass murder ever carried out in Europe.

Gauci was central to Megrahi’s conviction because the clothes recovered from the suitcase that carried the bomb onto Pan Am 103 at Heathrow, bound for New York, were traced back to his shop.

Various reports have claimed that Tony Gauci received more than $2m and his brother more than $1m in reward money.

It is important to note that this is the first time in legal history in the UK that relatives of murdered victims have united with the relatives of a ‘convicted’ deceased to seek justice by means of a referral to the Appeal Court.

I also wish to quote the following:-

“We the family of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi will keep fighting for justice to find out who was responsible for 271 victims of the Lockerbie disaster.” (They of course include Mr Megrahi as its 271st victim)

The Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill has said that “Scotland's Criminal Justice system is a cornerstone of our society, and it is paramount that there is total public confidence in it.”

Fine words indeed but the reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system has suffered badly both at home and internationally because of widespread doubts about the justifiability of the conviction of Mr Al-Megrahi.

It is in the interests of justice and of restoring confidence in our criminal justice system and its administration that these doubts be addressed. This can best be done by allowing the Appeal Court to consider the SCCRC's reasons for believing that there may have been a miscarriage of justice in a fresh appeal challenging the original verdict.

END OF STATEMENT - AAMER ANWAR

PARTS OF STATEMENT ISSUED THIS MORNING TO THE SCCRC BY DR JIM SWIRE

I am Dr Jim Swire, father of Flora Swire who, one day before her 24th birthday, was brutally murdered along with 269 others in the Lockerbie disaster. It has always been and remains my intent to see those responsible for her death brought to justice and steps taken to ensure a coherent preventive system against terrorism in the future.(...)

So by 1990 I was appalled by what I already knew concerning what appeared to me to be the betrayal of the trust which we should be able to place in our Government to protect us. Moreover there is no denying that the policies of Governments largely decide the targets which international terrorism is likely to choose. In no sphere nowadays is Government responsibility more important than in the protection of citizens against such attacks.(...)

As for me Jim Swire, father of Flora, I still ache for her, what might have been the grandchildren she would have had, the love she always gave us and the glowing medical career ? For me this case is about two families, mine and Baset’s, but behind them now are seen to lie the needs of 25 other families in applying for a further appeal 25 years after the event itself. (...) We need the truth and Scotland’s management of this case produced a verdict perfectly tailored for use by those who would seek to ensure that the full truth remains hidden.

If it is true that this man, Baset, and his country were not the perpetrators, then who really were? If the verdict is unjustified then the extraordinary delay experienced thus far in redressing it has protected the real perpetrators from the probing of international justice. (...) It has also protected the systems which failed to protect our families. The review of the evidence and verdict still lie with us in Scotland. We still have the option of re-examining this case in Scotland, if we do not do so it will pass to others to examine, and Scotland, her people and her law would be the losers.

Application submitted to SCCRC for posthumous Megrahi appeal

This morning a press conference is taking place in Glasgow to announce that today an application is being submitted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for review of the conviction of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the murder of the 270 people who died at Lockerbie in the Pan Am 103 disaster. Among those speaking at the conference are the Rev'd John Mosey, Dr Jim Swire (each of whom lost a daughter in the tragedy) and Aamer Anwar, the solicitor instructed by the applicants.

This is a highly significant development. But, as I have been at pains in the past to point out, there are major problems and pitfalls in the path of overturning the shameful conviction of Mr Megrahi. Nevertheless, it can be done -- and if the reputation of Scottish criminal justice is ever to be redeemed, it must be.

Justice Committee maintains political oversight of Lockerbie developments

At its meeting held this morning, the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee agreed unanimously to keep open Justice fror Megrahi’s petition (PE1370) calling on the Scottish Government to convene an independent inquiry into the Lockerbie investigation, prosecution and conviction.  The Committee recognised the importance of maintaining political oversight of the various Lockerbie developments that are taking place -- a watching brief.  Important contributions to the discussion were made by John Finnie MSP, Sandra White MSP and the convener, Christine Grahame MSP.

The Justice Committee is one of the painfully few Scottish institutions that is emerging from the Lockerbie affair with an enhanced reputation.

Justice for Megrahi submission to Scottish Parliament Justice Committee

[What follows is the text of Justice for Megrahi’s submission to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee in connection with its consideration of JFM’s petition at tomorrow’s meeting (which begins at 10.00 in Holyrood Committee Room 6 -- the relevant agenda item is expected to be reached at around 11.00.]

Since the Justice Committee’s last consideration of PE 1370 on 18 February 2014 and the resultant correspondence between the Justice Committee and Police Scotland, JFM is pleased to inform the Committee that constructive progress is now being made regarding the investigation into all nine allegations of criminality against Crown, police and forensic officials.

Justice for Megrahi (JFM) is grateful to the Justice Committee for its intervention with Police Scotland subsequent to the stalling of the investigation into JFM’s allegations of criminality against aforementioned officials.

On 21 February 2014 JFM received a letter of reassurance from Chief Constable Sir Stephen House that action would be taken to re-establish JFM’s confidence in the investigation. Through his good offices, a meeting between DCC Livingston (responsible for oversight), Detective Superintendent Johnstone (responsible for running the investigation) and representatives of JFM took place at the Police Scotland College, Tulliallan, on 2 April 2014.

Following a full and frank discussion, a major crime investigation team has been set up under Detective Superintendent Johnstone. In addition, the issue of ‘conflict’ between the JFM allegations and the COPFS investigation appears to have been overcome and interviews with JFM representatives speaking to the allegations in question have now taken place and further interviews may result. Clear lines of communication have been established and regular updates are in progress.

While there has been a positive sea-change in the police approach to the criminal allegations, ultimately, the report of their investigation will be handed over to the Crown Office for any action it might deem necessary. Given that institution’s public and highly prejudicial pronouncements, in 2013, before any investigation was even launched (see: Scotsman article of 24 September 2012 - http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/lockerbie-cover-up-like-hillsborough-claim-campaigners-1-2543953

and Times Scotland Edition article of 21 December 2012 - http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/pro-megrahi-backers-flayed-by-new-lord.html), JFM continues to have little faith in any decision the Crown Office might make in respect of its allegations.

Currently there are three separate initiatives being pursued in relation to the Lockerbie atrocity. The JFM call for an independent public inquiry (PE 1370), the JFM criminal allegations and the Lockerbie relatives anticipated submission to the SCCRC re a third appeal against Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction. All three pillars are integrally linked, although JFM, while totally supportive, has no direct role in the SCCRC submission.

There is no question that the Justice Committee, in its role as political overseer, has been hugely influential in progressing all three initiatives. For this reason, JFM considers it of major importance that the Justice Committee maintains PE 1370 open on the parliamentary books and continues to maintain a watching brief on behalf of the people of Scotland.

Should a decision to close be taken and it later transpires that criminal wrongdoing was committed during the Lockerbie investigation and Zeist trial, and/or should Mr Megrahi’s conviction be quashed upon appeal, the call for an inquiry would be irresistible. Closing the petition at this stage therefore makes little sense.

It is JFM’s position that the Justice Committee still has a massively important role to play in maintaining political oversight over these ongoing initiatives aimed at casting light on the most appalling atrocity ever committed on Scottish soil in recent history. We believe their continuing involvement is essential if wounds are ever to be healed and faith restored in the Scottish criminal justice system. It is sincerely hoped that the Justice Committee will identify with this view.

Finally, JFM regrets the delayed lodging of this submission but we were only informed of the 3 June consideration of PE 1370 after the deadline had lapsed.

Justice for Megrahi petition again on Justice Committee agenda

[At its meeting on Tuesday, 3 June 2014 the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee will again consider Justice for Megrahi’s petition (PE1370) calling on the Scottish Government to institute an independent inquiry into the prosecution, trial and conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (agenda item 4).  The papers for the meeting can be read here.  Among them (last three pages of the document) is a report from Police Scotland on the meeting held on 2 April 2014 with representatives of Justice for Megrahi to discuss progress on the police investigation into JFM’s allegations of criminal misconduct in the Lockerbie investigation, prosecution and trial. It reads as follows:]

MEETING SUMMARY

Police Scotland and Justice for Megrahi (JFM) Tulliallan Castle: Wednesday 2nd April 2014.

Present:

Police Scotland: Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone; Detective Superintendent Stuart Johnstone.

Justice for Megrahi (JFM): Iain McKie; Len Murray; James Robertson.

The meeting was held to facilitate liaison between Police Scotland and JFM in

respect of the ongoing police investigation into JFM’s 9 criminal allegations, with

both parties keen to resolve the recent difficulties and use the meeting as a positive

basis to move forward.

In a full and frank discussion, JFM expressed their concern at the progress of the

investigation to date, the lack of feedback in this regard and sought to restore and

maintain mutual confidence through regular liaison. In acknowledgement of the JFM

position, DCC Livingstone reiterated that Sir Stephen House had stated his priority

was an efficient and effective investigation into the allegations and that DCC

Livingstone had been appointed to ensure that this was delivered. Regular liaison

between Police Scotland and JFM was welcomed and would serve to underline this

commitment.

Police Scotland provided a brief synopsis of the extent of the investigations into the

allegations, to date, with some reassurance through emphasis of the high standard

of work and level of detail applied by Mr Shearer prior to his retirement. This work, in

turn, has been subject to independent scrutiny and review, the opinion of which will

help inform the enquiry as it moves forward. This update and explanation was

welcomed by JFM, and served to dispel some misconceptions that the allegations

were not being effectively investigated.

A robust governance structure is now in place, with the appointment of Detective

Superintendent Johnstone as senior investigating officer, to progress work on the

allegations, as directed by Deputy Chief Constable, Crime and on behalf of the Chief

Constable. The enquiry is now being managed through established major incident

procedures, with immediate effect. This methodology was welcomed by the JFM

Liaison Group, and provided an assurance that the enquiry was being robustly

managed, and following established major enquiry processes. A dedicated enquiry

team of selected officers is being appointed under Detective Superintendent

Johnstone, whose full-time remit and responsibility is now the investigation into the

allegations.

JFM stated that they could find no justification in the August 2013 decision to delay

enquiry into allegations 5, 6 and 7, and also challenged the implication, in the Chief

Constable’s letter to JFM dated 20th February 2014, that effectively investigation into

all 9 allegations had been temporarily halted because of this ‘conflict’. The delay had

arisen because of a perceived ‘conflict’ with investigations being carried out by the

Crown Office/Police team seeking evidence against Abdelbaset al Megrahi and

possible others in relation to the downing of Pan Am 103 and the murder of 270

persons. JFM could see no good reason why the allegations could not be

investigated in parallel with the other Libyan enquiries. It was highlighted that on two

occasions the Justice Committee had been informed that the ‘conflict’ would shortly

be resolved and investigation would be restarted. This had not happened. JFM

maintained that far from being in conflict a number of their allegations actually had

relevance to the separate Crown enquiry.

Police Scotland noted JFM’s position and stated that following liaison between Mr

Shearer and the Crown Office conflict between the two enquiries had been identified

and thus delays occurred in progressing certain of the allegations. It was not

possible to share the exact detail of that conflict due to operational security. The

current position was that, of now, a full investigation of JFM’s allegations was

resuming and that it was accepted that in some aspects the two separate enquiries

had common threads running through them that would require to be examined.

However, should such conflicts present themselves the live investigation will at all

times take precedent. This will not, however, preclude the full, proper, and timeous

investigation to the JFM allegations.

The need for regular liaison was recognised as being an important factor if mutual

confidence was to be restored and maintained during the investigative process. JFM

undertook to be available as required to assist the ongoing investigation, and

proposed the formation of a ‘Liaison Group’ charged with responsibility for

maintaining close police links. While inviting the JFM representatives to contact the

enquiry team at any time Police Scotland indicated that they welcomed the concept

of a ‘Liaison Group’ whereby trust and mutual confidence could develop. They would

institute a series of regular meetings shortly where there would be an opportunity to

meet and review. JFM agreed to this proposal but made it clear that as an

organisation with a specific aim (i.e. ‘Justice for Megrahi’) it reserved the right to

challenge the police during the ongoing liaison. Given the length of time that had

already passed, JFM stated that further unexplained or unreasonable delays in the

investigation would not be acceptable.

In conclusion, JFM representatives stated that while they had reservations about the

way their allegations had been handled in the past they were confident that today’s

discussions would prove to be an excellent basis for moving the investigation

forward. Police Scotland underlined their total commitment to the investigation and

their determination that these high priority allegations would be effectively

investigated.

Both parties agreed that the discussions had been open, frank and extremely useful,

and gave a commitment to build on this accord. Police Scotland and JFM agreed

that further liaison meetings will be held in future.

[[A paper by Justice for Megrahi has been submitted explaining its reasons for contending that the Committee should keep the petition open. This paper does not yet appear on the Justice Committee’s webpage.]

"The stench of cover-up becomes overwhelming"

[Two years ago today I posted on this blog an item taken from John Ashton’s Megrahi: You are my Jury website. In this fallow period for new Lockerbie developments (which will not continue much longer) it bears repeating:]

The new edition of Private Eye carries the following article under the headline Justice short-circuited. The newly-revealed document to which it refers can be read here.

For 19 years prosecutors and investigators kept secret a detailed report about the most important forensic evidence recovered from the debris of Pan Am 103 at Lockerbie – a fragment of timing device circuit board – which completely undermined their own case against Abdelbasset al-Megrahi.  

That such crucial material, obtained by the Eye, was never disclosed before the Libyan was convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity on UK soil,  should in itself be sufficient grounds for a public inquiry of itself. Added to the wealth of other evidence concealed from his trial (Eyes passim)  the deeply flawed identification evidence “linking”  Megrahi to the  bombing, the use of a discredited Walter Mitty-type FBI informer as a “star witness”, and the fact that other material in the case still remains secret protected by “public interest immunity”, the stench of cover-up becomes overwhelming.

The 11-page document is a detailed summary of the forensic analysis of the circuit board, which reveals that police and experts were well aware, relatively early in the investigation, that there was something “very unusual” about the board. They had found that tracks on it were coated with pure tin, whereas the vast majority in manufacture have a tin/lead mix. This was a significant lead.

“Without exception it is the view of all experts involved in the PCB [printed circuit board] industry who have assisted with this enquiry that the tin application on the tracks of the circuit was by far the most interesting feature”, said the police report.

Scandalously this was never revealed at Megrahi’s trial and not disclosed to his defence lawyers until 2009 – a month before he was freed from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds to return to Libya, where he recently died.   

The Crown’s case against Megrahi regarding the circuit board was always the opposite: namely, that the fragment was identical to circuit boards used in timers that were supplied to Libya by a Swiss company Mebo.  But these were not remotely “unusual” as they had the common tin/lead mix.

Earlier this year writer and researcher John Ashton in his book,  Megrahi: You are my Jury, revealed how the government scientist, Allen Feraday, who had told the trial that the circuit fragment was “similar in all respects” to the Mebo devices,  had, in fact, overseen tests on the fragment and a control sample circuit board, (revealed in recently disclosed notebooks) which pointed up the differences between the two.

As this new document shows, the significance of such findings was known more widely. This raises questions about why the evidence remained buried for years and who exactly knew the Mebo timers were different.

The piece of board was discovered among parts of a man’s shirt recovered from the crash site. The shirt was in turn traced back to Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper, who put Megrahi in the frame three years after the bombing, saying he resembled the man who had bought the clothing. (As Eye readers know Megrahi bore no resemblance to the man first described by Gauci to investigators, and it later emerged that the shopkeeper and his brother were handsomely “rewarded” by the FBI.)

The new material coupled, and the doubts about the veracity of the Gauci evidence, undermine the two main pillars of Megrahi’s conviction. And while the Libyans were not averse to state-sponsored acts of terrorism at the time of the bombing in 1988, it remains the case – as the late Paul Foot pointed out in an Eye special report, Lockerbie: The Flight from Justice, in 2001 -  that the attack bore the hallmarks of a Syrian-backed Palestinian terrorist cell which had been caught red-handed with devices equipped to bring down planes.

The excuse for not holding a public inquiry is because the criminal investigation is continuing.  So far investigators only seem to have travelled to Libya – no doubt to see if they can obtain new evidence that might somehow prop up the crumbling conviction.

Libyan settlement terms for Pan Am 103 families

[This is a quiet period as far as public developments in the Lockerbie saga are concerned. Quite a lot is going on behind the scenes and will come into the public domain in the near future. In the meantime, here is some more history.

Twelve years ago today it was announced by US lawyers representing the families of Lockerbie victims that Libya had made an offer to settle their compensation claims.  A contemporaneous report on the CNN website reads in part:]

Libya has offered $2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of those killed in the Pan Am 103 bombing, with payments tied to the lifting of US and UN sanctions, according to lawyers representing some families.

The proposed settlement would work out to $10 million per family, according to a letter from the families' lawyer detailing the offer. It includes relatives of those killed on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie. But compensation would be paid piecemeal, with installments tied to the lifting of sanctions.

The letter says 40 percent of the money would be released when UN sanctions are lifted; another 40 percent when US commercial sanctions are lifted; and the remaining 20 percent when Libya is removed from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.