Relatives of
the Lockerbie victims have vowed to pursue a public inquiry, even if it means
forcing the hand of the UK Government through the courts.
On the day Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al
Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the bombing, was laid to rest near the Libyan
capital of Tripoli, Dr Jim Swire whose daughter Flora died in the atrocity,
revealed the families have taken legal advice and are planning to challenge UK
ministers with a judicial review.
Prime
Minister David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond have both rejected calls
for an independent inquiry into the bombing in December 1988 that claimed 270
lives.
However,
lawyers claim it would be possible to challenge that decision in the courts and
Dr Swire said he is determined to pursue an inquiry.
It
also emerged yesterday that Tony Kelly, Megrahi's lawyer, will travel to Libya
this week to pay his respects to Megrahi's family.
Megrahi
was released from prison on compassionate grounds almost three years ago
because he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
He
had been granted a fresh appeal by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review
Commission (SCCRC), which found there could have been a miscarriage of justice
on six different grounds. However, he dropped the appeal.
Megrahi's
release unleashed an international storm of criticism, but many of the victims'
relatives believe the conviction to be unsound, especially in light of new
evidence.
Justice
Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday said he had made the "right decision
for the right reasons". (…)
SNP MP Angus Robertson said the
"hypocrisy" of Labour and Conservative MPs was in contrast to Mr
MacAskill's "in good faith" decision.
Dr
Swire and other relatives are working with leading lawyer Gareth Peirce to
compel the UK Government under human rights legislation to allow an inquiry.
Dr
Swire told The Herald: "Our
lawyers are saying we have an absolute right to know who killed our loved ones
and why they were not protected."
He
said that had become "increasingly important" since they learned
recently that statements about a break-in at Heathrow Airport before the
December 1988 bombing were kept by police until 1999.
Dr
Swire added: "This might mean pushing for a judicial review of the UK
Government's decision not to grant an independent inquiry.
"The
alternative right now is for Alex Salmond to get his act together and grant an
independent inquiry in Scotland.
"I
am not in the mood to forgo the right to know who murdered my daughter and who
knew the airport was broken into 16 hours before and decided not to do anything
about it.
"I
will have to take further advice on whether I could pursue this through the
SCCRC. I think the next move lies with the Megrahi family."
Professor
Robert Black QC – the architect of Megrahi's trial, said ministers could be
persuaded to hold an independent inquiry in Scotland, or a relative of Megrahi
may re-apply to the SCCRC and push for a new appeal.
Ministers'
continued refusal to hold a public inquiry could be challenged as a breach of
article 8, the right to a family life.
Niall
McCluskey, an advocate and expert in human rights, said: "The court could
declare the Government was in some way in breach of the petitioner's human
rights. Judicial review is a mechanism by which they could seek to have the
decision of the Government not to hold an inquiry challenged."
John
Ashton, a former member of Megrahi's defence team and the author of his
official biography, Megrahi: You Are My Jury, said: "He has suffered a
very painful death and he has gone to his grave with the conviction hanging
over him.
"I
am convinced that sooner or later the conviction will be overturned."
A
Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government does not
doubt the safety of the conviction of al Megrahi. Nevertheless, there remain
concerns to some on the wider issues of the Lockerbie atrocity.
"The
questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the
jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish Government, and such an
inquiry would therefore need to be initiated by those with the required power
and authority to deal with an issue, international in its nature."
Downing
Street refused to explain Mr Cameron's reasoning behind his refusal to back a
new inquiry.
[It is disappointing to see the
Scottish Government trotting out the shopworn old excuse that any such inquiry
would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of the Scottish
Government. As has been pointed
out on many occasions, what is being called for is an inquiry into the
investigation, prosecution and conviction of Abdelbaset Megrahi. Each and every
one of these matters is within the jurisdiction of Scots law and the remit of
the Scottish Government:
The event occurred over and on Scottish
territory.
The case was investigated by a Scottish police force.
The trial was conducted under Scots Law.
Mr Megrahi was convicted under Scots Law.
Mr Megrahi was imprisoned in a Scottish gaol.
The SCCRC referred the second appeal to the Scottish Court of Appeal.
Mr Megrahi was given compassionate release by the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice.]
The case was investigated by a Scottish police force.
The trial was conducted under Scots Law.
Mr Megrahi was convicted under Scots Law.
Mr Megrahi was imprisoned in a Scottish gaol.
The SCCRC referred the second appeal to the Scottish Court of Appeal.
Mr Megrahi was given compassionate release by the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice.]
MISSION LOCKERBIE, 2012, (doc. nr. 8136.rtf)
ReplyDeleteMaking whole: The Legal document from MEBO Ltd, from the Swiss Law Firm Neupert + Partners sent to the Office of the Procurator Fiscal, Sheriff Courthouse in Dumfries, Scotland /UK, was not accepted (or suppressed ?)...
SA13924 TXT Criminal Complaint regarding the Falsification Evidence in the Lockerbie Case, date July 11, 2000. Part of text:
Dear Mr Procurotor
Acting on behalf of Mr Edwin Bollier, Badenerstrasse 414, CH-8004 Zurich/Switzerland a key witness in the case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah we herewith respectfully submit the present request to open CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS with regard to the following punishable offences:
A. Use Of a forged (never functioning) fragment of an alleged MST-13 timer, allegedly manufactured by Mebo Ltd.. the company of Mr Edwin Bollier as key
evidence for the Crown.
B. Manipulation with and disfigurement of the alleged MST-13 timer fragment up to September 13, 1999.
C. Total disfigurement of said fragment from September 13, 1999 until June 2000, in order to obliterate shape and colour of said fragment.
REASONING
1. MEBO AG fabricated 3 pieces of brown MST-13 timer motherboards in the middle of 1985. Of these handmade motherboards 2 pieces were subjected to electronic counterparts, thus creating 2 functioning MST-13 timer prototypes. Those were handed over to the Institute for Technical Research (IYTU - STASI/NVA) in Bernau (ex.DDR) in the middle of 1985. The third brown motherboard has allegedly been broken in the hands of the employee Engineer U. Lumpert and disposed of ? (Police protocol testimony, U. Lumpert November 1990, Legal Aid, USA, Scotland).
Also the blueprint for construction of such MST?13 timer prototypes did presumably disappear in the spring of 1990 from MEBO AG.
2. Additionally, 20 pieces of MST-13 timer were fabricated 1985-1986 and delivered to the Libyan military-security in Tripoli Libya. Those MST-13 timers were fitted with machine-created motherboards, colour: green (Thuring motherboards).
3. It showed that the colour of the alleged Lockerbie-found "Corpus Delicti" would have been of utmost importance for the Scottish Police, in order to identify the origin of the fragments:, one brown fragment. Pol, No. PT/35(b), from a MST13 timer.
continuation down >>>
>>> ebol continuation:
ReplyDelete4. Why ? The trace tracked back from the Scottish Police to the USA, to the FBI-forensic expert Mr Thomas Thurman. A Scottish forensic expert, Mr. Feraday, did bring the future alleged Lockerbie-found MST-13 timer fragment to the USA, to Thomas Thurman, FBI forensic expert. He then found that the fragment came from a MST- 13 timer, that looks like MST-13 timers, seized from a Libyan courier in Togo and Senegal.
Thomas Thurman then on June 15, 1990 did decide and found that the alleged Lockerbie-found fragment come from a MST- 13 timer, that activated that "Radio-Recorder-Bomb. IED" in the plane of PanAm 103! Thus the link between Lockerbie and Libya was established and on November 14, 1991. the responsibility of the PanAm 103 attack could be transferred to Libya.
The first forensic pictures and films that came from the FBI-laboratory of forensic expert Thomas Thurman clearly contain that the allegedly Lockerbie found fragment came from a brown MST-13 prototype-timer. (Thus the central piece of evidence that the prosecution is relying upon, was in the beginning a brown fragment, from a non-functionin g prototype MST-13 timer that was later switched with a green copied fragment-copy!)
5. The then employed MEBO-employee, Engineer U. Lumpert, testified according to the Swiss Legal Aid in the protocol of November 1990 that he knew that the two MST-13 prototype timers were delivered to the DDR (read testimony from BBC).
Today the investigational administratives claim the police protocol does not contain any such testimony from Lumpert ?
Perhaps FBI-forensic expert Thomas Thurman realized - after re-checking with Mr Lumpert - that it was not possible to connect the brown MST-13 prototypetimer with Libya as no brown MST-13 timers were delivered to Libya! - A green MST- 13 timer fragment was to be fetched! It is evident for the two witnesses Mr Meister and Mr Bollier (MEBO) that the present shown forensic evidence pictures of Thurmans as shown in Court in Camp Zeist assumingly belong to computer-photo-edited-pictures that are supposed to point towards green fragments!
12. Summary: MEBO thinks that the Lockerbie-disaster has been abused t conspire against Libya and has used the firm MEBO as its link...
Pls. see also the Affidavit of engineer Ulrich Lumpert on our Webpage.
by Edwin and Mahnaz Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Switzerland. URL: www.lockerbie.ch