Justice Committee to continue to monitor progress

What follows is an excerpt from the Minute of Proceedings of yesterday’s session of the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee:

“7. Public petitions: The Committee considered the following petitions and agreed in relation to—

“PE1370 by Dr Jim Swire, Professor Robert Black QC, Robert Forrester, Father Patrick Keegans and Iain McKie on behalf of Justice for Megrahi: to monitor the progress being made between Justice for Megrahi and Police Scotland and to consider the petition again at a future meeting”.

The Official Report (Hansard) for this meeting is due for publication at or before 6pm on Monday 10 November. A video recording of the committee meeting can be viewed here.

The Justice Committee and the Megrahi petition

A reminder that at its meeting today at 09.30 in Holyrood’s Committee Room 1, 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 7).  The proceedings can be watched on Parliament TV (http://www.scottishparliament.tv/). In respect of timings, the committee staff inform us that the petitions item is likely to be reached at around 11.45.

[I am delighted to see that my second home, South Africa, has now notched up 2000 unique visitors on Flag Counter. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika!]

Final performances of Lockerbie play

A reminder that the last three performances in the autumn tour of Lee Gershuny’s play Lockerbie - Lost Voices will take place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SR, on Friday 7 November at 7.30pm and Saturday 8 November at 3pm and 7.30pm.

Here, from last year, is a review of the production.

New US radio programme on the Lockerbie case

[What follows is from a programme summary on the US radio4all.net website:]

26 years on, was the Lockerbie airliner bomb planted at Heathrow Airport? Were British intelligence services involved? New revelations about 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am Flight 103 bombing with Jim Swire, father of victim Flora. Discussion and clips from Allan Francovich's documentary financed by Tiny Rowland The Maltese Double Cross. Film blocked. Break-in at Heathrow airside the night before Lockerbie bombing. "Your government and mine know exactly what happened at Lockerbie, but they're never going to tell". Oliver North ordered Oswald DeWinter to lay a false drug trail to implicate Libya. Drugs cocaine and heroin on the aircraft. Dr Bill Chasey, Dr William Chasey persecuted in the US by the CIA for trying to get justice. Vincent Cannistraro detailed by Regan to run PR against Libya then appointed to be chief investigation of the Lockerbie bombing. Dr David Fieldhouse found a body that then 'disappeared' and was smeared by the police. 

[The programme can be downloaded here.]

Joe Mifsud on Malta and terrorism, including Lockerbie

[What follows is an article that appeared in today’s edition of the Malta Independent:]

Beyond the EgyptAir hijack, Lockerbie, and the killing of Shqaqi: Terror’s footprints, by Joe Mifsud

Terror's footprints - Shadows of International Terrorism over Malta was officially launched yesterday. The book, authored by lawyer and veteran journalist Joe Mifsud sheds new light not only on three of the most well-known terroristic events related to Malta - the 1985 Egypt Air hijacking, the assassination of Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shqaqi and the Lockerbie boming - but also delves on other possible terrorism attempts with a Malta connection.

It is loaded with key information, supported by documents and photographs, about events which all left their mark on Malta. The publication delves beyond the headlines and the published stories bringing facts from out of the shadows into the light.

Dr Mifsud recollects the time he visited the Islamic Jihad headquarters in Syria after his request to interview Fathi Shqaqi's family was accepted. He was the first foreign journalist to be allowed in the camp.

He also travelled to Libya and spoke to the family of one of the two men accused of carrying out the Lockerie bombing and was the the only Maltese journalist to follow the trial at The Hague.

Apart from the three prominent cases, the author speaks about "other shadows, indicating the possibility and even probability of other occasions when Malta was shamelessly used by other countries, even so called friends, for their nefarious ends."

The book was edited by Martin Bugelli and published by Kite Group. A book signing event will be held on 14 November at MCC in Valletta.

[Further references to Dr Joe Mifsud on this blog can be found here.]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused of gross political cowardice over Lockerbie

The following are two items posted on this blog on this date in 2007 and 2009 respectively:

1.  A prison visit

Today I had a two-hour meeting in Her Majesty's Prison Greenock with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, at his invitation (my first). Since the date of the trial court's verdict against him, my position has been a clear one: on the evidence led at the trial his conviction was simply an outrageous miscarriage of justice, about which the Scottish criminal justice system should feel nothing but shame. As a result of today's meeting I am satisfied that not only was there a wrongful conviction, but the victim of it was an innocent man. Lawyers, and I hope others, will appreciate this distinction.

I will not be disclosing the content of my discussions with Mr Megrahi, but I can say that he now speaks English with a fine Scottish accent (his first words to me were "Thank you for visiting me on such a dreich day") and that his taste in mints is impeccable.

["dreich" in relation to weather means dreary, cheerless, bleak. See http://www.dsl.ac.uk/]

2.  Lockerbie inquiry ruled out by Gordon Brown

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of The Sunday Times about the letter recently received by Dr Jim Swire from the Prime Minister. The article reads as follows:]

Gordon Brown has ruled out holding a public inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster. In a letter to representatives of victims’ families, the prime minister said it would be “inappropriate” for the UK government to hold such an investigation.

His decision was criticised by relatives who said it has left them with little hope of learning the truth about who was behind the attack and the government’s handling of case.

UK ministers say it is now up to the Scottish government to decide if it wants to hold its own, more limited, inquiry into the worst terrorist attack on British soil. The SNP government has ruled out an independent inquiry, saying Holyrood lacks the constitutional power to examine the international dimensions of the case.

Supporters of a UK-led inquiry into the 1988 attack that killed 270 people believe it could involve sensitive Foreign Office files explaining why ministers named Libya as the state which sponsored the attack.

In a letter to Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 24, died in the attack, Brown said: “I understand your desire to understand the events surrounding the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.” But he added: “I do not think it would be appropriate for the UK government to open an inquiry of this sort.”

Brown rejected Swire’s claim that a break-in at Heathrow airport shortly before the plane carrying the bomb took off rendered the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi unsafe.

“I understand the Court of Criminal Appeal in Scotland did consider whether the incident at Heathrow made the conviction of Mr Megrahi unsafe, and concluded that it did not,” the prime minister added.

Jean Berkley, whose son Alistair, 29, was killed in the bombing, said Brown had let down relatives of the victims.

“By handing it back to Scotland it looks like they are trying to push it into the long grass,” she said.

Professor Robert Black, a QC campaigning for an inquiry, accused Brown of “gross political cowardice”. He suspected the government did not want further scrutiny of sensitive aspects of the case which led the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to report in 2007 that the conviction against Megrahi may be unsafe.

Black pointed out the Inquiries Act 2005 allows the UK government to hold a joint inquiry with Holyrood on matters straddling both parliaments. “The security of the United Kingdom and foreign relations are non-devolved issues and if Gordon Brown is saying these are not areas that would be involved in a Lockerbie inquiry then the man is insane,” he said.

[This story has now been picked up on the Telegraph website and can be read here. The Sunday Telegraph publishes a very moving article about Rev John Mosey whose daughter, Helga, was one of the victims of the Lockerbie disaster. The last three paragraphs read:]

The Moseys know that they cannot "move on" from the terrorist attack that took their daughter's life until they know the truth about who killed her.

Megrahi's decision to drop his appeal denied them the chance to hear new evidence in court that might have given clues about the killers. They, and the other Lockerbie families, will continue to fight for an independent public inquiry.

"I don't know if we will ever get the truth about what happened," Mr Mosey says. "But we will never give up trying. We owe it to Helga."

Justice for Megrahi petition once more on Justice Committee agenda

At its meeting on Tuesday, 4 November 2014 at 09.30 in Holyrood’s Committee Room 1, 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 7).  The papers for the meeting can be read here (this is a document of 66 pages, which are not numbered consecutively internally; however, the pages relevant to JFM’s petition are pages 33, 34 and 39 to 42 as indicated by your computer). The papers consist of two letters to the Committee from Justice for Megrahi and a report on a meeting between representatives of JFM and the Police Scotland team investigating JFM's complaints of criminal misconduct in the Lockerbie investigation, prosecution and trial. 

The proceedings can be watched on Parliament TV (http://www.scottishparliament.tv/). In respect of timings, the committee staff inform us that the petitions item is likely to be reached at around 11.45

No need to be a conspiracy theorist to recognise nagging questions gnawing away at Lockerbie case

What follows is an item first posted on this blog on this date five years ago:

Lockerbie questions demand an answer

This is the headline over an article in today's issue of The Times by Magnus Linklater, the newspaper's Scotland Editor (and the editor of The Scotsman in the bygone days when that title was still a serious and responsible journal).

The article reads in part:

'You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to recognise that nagging questions have gnawed away at the Lockerbie case since the first investigations began. The veteran campaigner, Tam Dalyell, who describes himself as a “professor of Lockerbie studies”, is convinced that neither al-Megrahi nor the Libyan Government had any involvement. He, along with the Rev John Mosey and Dr Jim Swire, who both lost daughters in the atrocity, believe that there has been a spectacular miscarriage of justice.

'They have raised questions about basic evidence in the original case. They have challenged eyewitness accounts offered by the chief prosecution witness, the Maltese shopowner who originally identified Megrahi as a suspect. They have raised doubts about the forensic evidence, and have pointed out that al-Megrahi, a civilised and intelligent man, is a most unlikely terrorist.

'Last weekend, their campaign was given fresh impetus when Robert Fisk, the veteran Middle East correspondent, reported that Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist responsible for some of the worst attacks of the 1970s and 1980s, may have been working for the Americans before the invasion of Iraq. Secret documents - the very phrase is a conspiracy idiom - written by Saddam Hussein's security services state that he had been colluding with the Americans trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qaeda. Abu Nidal's alleged suicide in 2002 may have been an execution by the Iraqis for his betrayal.

'From this tenuous connection stems the idea that the US security services may have had previous contacts within Abu Nidal's terrorist organisation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which many experts have long believed was the real perpetrator of Lockerbie.

'Mr Dalyell, who thinks there may be some weight to this theory, points to incidents such as notices that went up in the US Embassy in Moscow in the days before the bombing, warning diplomats not to travel on Pan Am flights, and how senior South African figures were hauled off the plane before the flight, almost as if there had been advance warning.

'For me, this kind of evidence strays into the territory of “the second gunman theory” that bedevilled the Kennedy assassination. But there is one aspect of the case that I have never understood: why was it that, for the first 18 months of the investigation, Scottish police, US investigators and European security agents were convinced that the perpetrators were Abu Nidal's PFLP? And why was it that, in the run-up to the Gulf War, when good relations with Syria and Iran were important to Western interests, attention switched abruptly from Abu Nidal's terrorists, and on to Libya?

'These matters have never satisfactorily been explained, and in the interests of common justice they should be addressed. For the sake of the Flight 103 victims, for the wider interests of Western security, and for the man now dying in a Scottish prison, there is a need for a proper inquiry. It does not have to be as wideranging as the Warren Commission that examined the Kennedy case, but it does need to be international, and to have US backing. The appeal in Edinburgh next year will examine legal aspects of the case, but it cannot extend to the wider issues that demand resolution.

'Just possibly a new president taking office next January will find in his in-tray persuasive evidence pointing to a reopening of the case. There are powerful moral reasons for dusting it off and asking a basic question: who was responsible for Britain's worst terrorist outrage?'

The full article can be accessed here.

Mr Linklater’s views on the Lockerbie case appear to have changed since he wrote this piece. His contributions over the years can be followed here.

The Lockerbie indictment

[Fifteen years ago, on this date in 1999, the indictment for the forthcoming Lockerbie trial was served upon the two Libyans accused of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. The High Court of Justiciary had ordered that the indictment be served by 30 October. The full text of the indictment appears below, but without the appended list of the names and addresses of the 270 victims and the lists of 1,058 prospective witnesses, 1,489 documentary productions and 550 label productions (ie items of physical evidence).]

ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI, born 1 April 1952 and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH, born 1956, Prisoners in the Prison of Zeist, Camp Zeist (Kamp van Zeist), The Netherlands:

You are Indicted at the instance of The Right Honourable THE LORD HARDIE, Her Majesty's Advocate, and the charges against you are that:

(1) between 1 January 1985 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive

·        at the premises occupied by you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and by the Libyan Intelligence Services, in Tripoli, Libya

·        at a special forces training area, Sabha, Libya

·        at the premises occupied by the firm MEBO AG

·        at the Novapark Hotel, Zurich, Switzerland

·        at Frankfurt am Main Airport, Federal Republic of Germany

·        at the Holiday Inn, Tigne Street, Sliema

·        at the Libyan People's Bureau, Tower Road, Sliema and Notabile Road, Balzan

·        at the Libyan Cultural Centre, Tower Road, Sliema, all in Malta

·        at the house occupied by you AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH at 3 St John's Flats, Spring Street, Mosta, Malta

·        at Luqa Airport, Malta and at the Libyan People's Bureau, East Berlin, German Democratic Republic, in Prague, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Libya, Malta, Switzerland, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere to the Prosecutor unknown

Being members of the Libyan Intelligence Services, and in particular being respectively the head of security of Libyan Arab Airlines and thereafter Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, Tripoli, Libya and the Station Manager of Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta ...

You did conspire together and with others to further the purposes of the Libyan Intelligence Services by criminal means, namely the use of explosive devices in the commission of acts of terrorism directed against nationals and the interests of other countries and in particular the destruction of a civil passenger aircraft and murder of its occupants ...

And, in pursuance of said conspiracy, while acting in concert together and with others:

(a) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 1985, both dates inclusive, through the hands of Said Rashid and Ezzadin Hinshiri, both also being members of the said Libyan Intelligence Services, and others at the said premises occupied by MEBO AG, in Zurich, aforesaid, at the said premises of said Libyan Intelligence Services, in Tripoli, aforesaid, at the said Libyan People's Bureau, East Berlin aforesaid and elsewhere to the Prosecutor unknown ...

Order, cause to be manufactured and obtain from the said firm of MEBO AG twenty electronic timers capable of detonating explosive devices;

(b) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 January 1985 and 30 June 1987 both dates inclusive at the said special forces training area at Sabha, Libya or elsewhere in Libya cause the effectiveness of such timers to be tested in conjunction with explosives under the supervision of Nassr Ashur, a member of the said Libyan Intelligence Services;

(c) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 January 1985 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, within the offices of Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa Airport, Malta, at the said Libyan Cultural Centre, Sliema aforesaid, the said premises occupied by the said Libyan People's Bureau, Malta, aforesaid, in an area of ground near Ghallis Tower, Malta and elsewhere in Malta have in your possession and under your control quantities of high performance plastic explosive and airline luggage tags;

(d) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did between 31 July 1987 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, within the said premises occupied by MEBO AG, in Zurich aforesaid establish and maintain along with Badri Hassan, also a member of the Libyan Intelligence Services, a pretended business under the name ABH as a cover for the operations of said Libyan Intelligence Services;

(e) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 22 August 1987 travel from Zurich, Switzerland to Malta, enter Malta and reside at the Holiday Inn, Sliema, aforesaid and on 23 August 1987 depart from Malta and travel from there to Tripoli, Libya using a passport in the false name and using the false identity of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad, all while travelling along with the said Nassr Ashur, who was then using a passport in the false name and using the false identity of Nassr Ahmed Salem;

(f) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 18 October 1987 travel from Tripoli, Libya to Malta and enter Malta and reside between 18 and 20 October 1987, both dates inclusive, at the Holiday Inn, Sliema, aforesaid and on 22 October 1987 depart from Malta and travel from there to Tripoli, Libya using a passport in the false name and using the false identity of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad;

(g) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 September 1988 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, at Eucharistic Congress Road, Mosta, Malta and elsewhere in Malta and in Prague, Czechoslovakia take steps with others to establish and maintain pretended businesses to be known as and under the name of Med Tours or Medtours Services Limited and as and under the name of Al Khadra Company or Al Khadra Medtours Services respectively as cover for the operations of said Libyan Intelligence Services;

(h) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did between 8 and 10 October 1988, both dates inclusive, at the premises occupied by Libyan Arab Airlines at Luqa Airport and Valletta, Malta and elsewhere in Malta attempt along with Mohammed Abouagela Masud, also a member of the said Libyan Intelligence Services, and others to the Prosecutor unknown, to travel to Ndjamena, Chad for the purpose of carrying out an operation on behalf of the said Libyan Intelligence Services;

(i) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 10 and 11 November 1988 cause the said Nassr Ashur to travel from Tripoli, Libya to Malta on 10 November 1988 and from Luqa Airport aforesaid to Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid on 11 November 1988 on Air Malta flight KM 2180 using a passport in the false name and using the false identity of Nassr Ahmed Salem;

(j) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 20 November and 20 December 1988, both dates inclusive, at the said premises occupied by MEBO AG, in Zurich aforesaid, at the said premises occupied by you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and by the said Libyan Intelligence Services, in Tripoli aforesaid, and elsewhere in Switzerland and Libya, through the hands of the said Ezzadin Hinshiri and Badri Hassan, order and attempt to obtain delivery of 40 further such timers from the said firm of MEBO AG;

(k) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, at Luqa Airport, Malta without authority remove therefrom airline luggage tags;

(l) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 7 December 1988 in the shop premises known as Mary's House at Tower Road, Sliema, Malta purchase a quantity of clothing and an umbrella;

(m) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 20 December 1988 at Luqa Airport, Malta enter Malta while you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI were using a passport in the false name of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad and you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did there and then cause a suitcase to be introduced to Malta;

(n) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 20 and 21 December 1988 reside at the Holiday Inn, Sliema, aforesaid under the false identity of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad;

(o) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 21 December 1988 at Luqa Airport, aforesaid place or cause to be placed on board an aircraft of Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt am Main Airport, Federal Republic of Germany said suitcase, or a similar suitcase, containing said clothing and umbrella and an improvised explosive device containing high performance plastic explosive concealed within a Toshiba RT SF 16 "Bombeat" radio cassette recorder and programmed to be detonated by one of said electronic timers, having tagged or caused such suitcase to be tagged so as to be carried by aircraft from Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid via London, Heathrow Airport to New York, John F Kennedy Airport, United States of America; and

(p) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 21 December 1988 depart from Malta and travel from there to Tripoli, Libya using a passport in the false name of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad, while travelling with said Mohammed Abouagela Masud;

and such suitcase was thus carried to Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid and there placed on board an aircraft of Pan American World Airways flight PA103 and carried to London, Heathrow Airport aforesaid and there, in turn, placed on board an aircraft of Pan American World Airways flight PA103 to New York, John F Kennedy Airport aforesaid;

and said improvised explosive device detonated and exploded on board said aircraft flight PA103 while in flight near to Lockerbie, Scotland whereby the aircraft was destroyed and the wreckage crashed to the ground and the 259 passengers and crew named in Schedule 1 hereof and the 11 residents of Lockerbie aforesaid named in Schedule 2 hereof were killed and you did murder them;

and it will be shown that between 1 January 1985 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, in Tripoli, Libya, at Dakar Airport, Senegal, in Malta and elsewhere the said Libyan Intelligence Services were in possession of said electronic timers, quantities of high performance plastic explosive, detonators and other components of improvised explosive devices and Toshiba RT SF 16 "Bombeat" radio cassette recorders, all for issue to and use by their members, including Mohammed El Marzouk and Mansour Omran Ammar Saber.

OR ALTERNATIVELY

(2) being members of said Libyan Intelligence Services as above libelled and having, while acting in concert with others, formed a criminal purpose to destroy a civil passenger aircraft and murder the occupants in furtherance of the purposes of said Libyan Intelligence Services and having obtained possession of and tested the effectiveness of electronic timers and being in possession of and having under your control quantities of high performance plastic explosive and airline luggage tags and having established and maintained and taken steps to establish and maintain pretended businesses all as above libelled, while acting in concert together and with others ...

(a) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 10 and 11 November 1988 cause the said Nassr Ashur, to travel from Tripoli, Libya to Malta on 10 November 1988 and from Luqa Airport aforesaid to Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid on 11 November 1988 on Air Malta flight KM 2180 using a passport in the false name and using the false identity of Nassr Ahmed Salem;

(b) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 20 November and 20 December 1988, both dates inclusive, at the said premises occupied by MEBO AG, in Zurich aforesaid, at the said premises occupied by you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and by the said Libyan Intelligence Services, in Tripoli aforesaid, and elsewhere in Switzerland and Libya, through the hands of the said Ezzadin Hinshiri and Badri Hassan, order and attempt to obtain delivery of forty further such timers from the said firm of MEBO AG;

(c) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did between 1 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, at Luqa Airport, Malta without authority remove therefrom airline luggage tags;

(d) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 7 December 1988 in the shop premises known as Mary's House at Tower Road, Sliema, Malta purchase a quantity of clothing and an umbrella;

(e) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 20 December 1988 at Luqa Airport, Malta enter Malta while you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI were using a passport in the false name of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad and you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did there and then cause a suitcase to be introduced to Malta;

(f) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 20 and 21 December 1988 reside at the Holiday Inn, Sliema, aforesaid using the false identity of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad;

(g) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH did on 21 December 1988 at Luqa Airport, aforesaid place or cause to be placed on board an aircraft of Air Malta flight KM180 to Frankfurt am Main Airport, Federal Republic of Germany said suitcase, or a similar suitcase, containing said clothing and umbrella and an improvised explosive device containing high performance plastic explosive concealed within a Toshiba RT SF 16 "Bombeat" radio cassette recorder and programmed to be detonated by one of said electronic timers, having tagged or caused such suitcase to be tagged so as to be carried by aircraft from Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid via London, Heathrow Airport to New York, John F Kennedy Airport, United States of America; and

(h) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI did on 21 December 1988 depart from Malta to Tripoli and travel from there to Libya using a passport in the false name of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad, while travelling with said Mohammed Abouagela Masud;

and such suitcase was thus carried to Frankfurt am Main Airport aforesaid and there placed on board an aircraft of Pan American World Airways flight PA103 and carried to London, Heathrow Airport aforesaid and there, in turn, placed on board an aircraft of Pan American World Airways flight PA103 to New York, John F Kennedy Airport aforesaid;

and said improvised explosive device detonated and exploded on board said aircraft flight PA103 while in flight near to Lockerbie, Scotland whereby the aircraft was destroyed and the wreckage crashed to the ground and the 259 passengers and crew named in Schedule 1 hereof and the 11 residents of Lockerbie aforesaid named in Schedule 2 hereof were killed and you did murder them;

and it will be shown that between 1 January 1985 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, in Tripoli, Libya, at Dakar Airport, Senegal, in Malta and elsewhere the said Libyan Intelligence Services were in possession of said electronic timers, quantities of high performance plastic explosive, detonators and other components of improvised explosive devices and Toshiba RT SF 16 "Bombeat" radio cassette recorders, all for issue to and use by their members, including Mohammed El Marzouk and Mansour Omran Ammar Saber.

OR ALTERNATIVELY

(3) you ABDELBASET ALI MOHMED AL MEGRAHI and AL AMIN KHALIFA FHIMAH being members of said Libyan Intelligence Services and having, while acting in concert with others, formed a criminal purpose to destroy a civil passenger aircraft and murder the occupants and having obtained possession of and tested the effectiveness of electronic timers and being in possession of and having under your control quantities of high performance plastic explosive and airport luggage tags, and having established and maintained and taken steps to establish and maintain pretended businesses all as above libelled, did on and between the dates and at the places in charge 2 above libelled, by the means there libelled, unlawfully and intentionally destroy said aircraft in service and commit on board said aircraft in flight acts of violence which were likely to and did endanger the safety of said aircraft, in respect that you did murder said persons:

and it will be shown that between 1 January 1985 and 21 December 1988, both dates inclusive, in Tripoli, Libya, at Dakar Airport, Senegal, in Malta and elsewhere the said Libyan Intelligence Services were in possession of said electronic timers, quantities of high performance plastic explosive, detonators and other components of improvised explosive devices and Toshiba RT SF 16 "Bombeat" radio cassette recorders, all for issue to and use by their members, including Mohammed El Marzouk and Mansour Omran Ammar Saber.

CONTRARY to the Aviation Security Act 1982, Section 2(1) and (5)

Abuzed Omar Dorda: an important Libyan figure in securing a Lockerbie trial

The following are excerpts from an item posted on this blog on 28 October 2011:

Ex-intel chief to Gaddafi wounded, raising more questions about handling of detainees

[This is the headline over a report published yesterday in the Checkpoint Washington section of The Washington Post website.  It reads in part:]

The former intelligence chief to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi was seriously injured Tuesday while in the custody of the National Transitional Council, fueling concerns about the treatment of loyalists to the deposed government.

The cause of Abuzed Omar Dorda’s injuries are disputed, but a relative of Dorda, a one-time UN envoy, has appealed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council president to intercede with Libyan authorities to protect the former official, saying he had been the target of an assassination attempt by his jailers. (...)

“Mr Dorda survived a murder attempt last night, 25 October, 2011, at the hands of his guards in the building where he was arrested,” Adel Khalifa Dorda, a nephew and son-in-law of the Gaddafi loyalist, wrote on behalf of the Dorda family. “He was thrown off the second floor leading to several broken bones and other serious injuries.”

The nephew said authorities were forced to move Dorda to a hospital in Tripoli, where “as of now he is being held under extremely poor conditions.” (...)

Dorda had long been a high-ranking official in Gaddafi’s government, playing a role during his years at the United Nations in negotiating the deal that ended UN sanctions on Libya imposed after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and paving the way to a financial payout to relatives of the victims.

[Omar Dorda played a significant part in gaining and maintaining Libyan Government acceptance of and support for my neutral venue proposal for a Lockerbie trial and in resolving difficulties that arose (largely through the intransigence of the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) after the United States and the United Kingdom eventually accepted the need for such a solution. Without his quiet diplomacy at the United Nations in New York, I doubt if a Lockerbie trial would ever have taken place.]

Further references to Mr Dorda on this blog can be found here. The last, dated 14 April 2014, relates to the start of his trial (along with other officials from the Gaddafi regime) on charges ranging from corruption to war crimes related to the deaths during the 2011 uprising. A Google search discloses no references to Dorda or to this trial since that date.