[This is part of the headline over a report published today on the website of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail. It reads as follows:]
The families of Lockerbie bombing victims will launch a fresh appeal to overturn the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on the second anniversary of his death.
The Libyan intelligence officer was the only man found guilty of blowing up Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people on December 21, 1988.
But campaigner Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, and other victims’ relatives believe he was innocent and will lodge an appeal against his conviction next month.
Jim said: “Megrahi became my friend after I realised that he had nothing to do with the murder of my daughter.
“I hope the appeal will succeed and, when it does, it means Megrahi’s family are no longer regarded as the family of the so-called Lockerbie bomber.
“The second thing is, I am getting older – I am 78 – and handing over the baton to lawyers will be a huge relief. There are a lot of legal people in Scotland who want to see this issue properly resolved.”
Jim says there are 20 UK-based Lockerbie families who are involved in the appeal and want the evidence that led to Megrahi’s conviction to be re-examined.
He added: “I have not approached US relatives because there is a fixed idea among nearly all of them that Megrahi was guilty because the court found him guilty.
“They don’t appear to me to be interested in re-examination of evidence that led to his conviction. I think to ask them to join in this would be to invite vehement antagonism.”
Megrahi was released from Greenock prison by the Scottish Government in August 2009 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and died protesting his innocence.
The relatives of 20 British victims will now lodge an appeal with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), who investigate alleged miscarriages of justice.
It is the third time Megrahi’s conviction has been the subject of an appeal.
After he received his life sentence in 2001, Megrahi appealed but it was thrown out by judges.
A second appeal saw the SCCRC refer the case back to the High Court, suggesting there “may have been a miscarriage of justice” and it was “in the interests of justice” to look at the case again.
But in 2009, Megrahi, by then suffering from terminal prostate cancer, dropped his second appeal to improve his chances of being allowed to go home to Libya to die. The third appeal by Lockerbie families in Britain could now be launched on or near the second anniversary of Megrahi’s death on May 20, 2012.
Last month, in a documentary shown on Al-Jazeera, a former high-ranking Iranian intelligence agent said Iran was responsible for the attack.
It was supposedly in revenge for the destruction in July 1988 of an Iranian plane mistakenly shot down by USS Vincennes, killing 290 people.
ReplyDeleteMISSION LIFE WITH THE LOCKERBIE AFFAIR, 2014 (google translation, german/english):
'Lockerbie Affair' comes in the highest level of escalation >
"Your government and ours know exactly what happened in the "Lockerbie Affair"... but they're will never going to tell"...???
The late Mr. Abdelbaset al Megrahi and Libya have nothing to do with the "Lockerbie Tragedy"!
Now > Public prosecutor Felix Bänziger, a man for specific mandates, was finally authorized by the supervision Commission over the Swiss Federal Prosecutor
(AB-BA) as extraordinary prosecutor (after a legal delay) Edwin Bollier & MEBO's criminal charge lawsuit, in connection with a damages under state liability, to start.
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO Ltd. Telecommunication Switzerland. Webpage: www.lockerbie.ch
ReplyDeleteSupplementing: (google translation, german/english):
By note of October 1st 1990, the Swiss Federal Office for Police Matters (BAP) was an international rogatory issued by the Lord Advocate of Scotland, as part of the investigation into the crash of an air transport machine of the Pan-Amercan World Airways over Lockerbie, in which 270 people were killed, transmitted.
The British Home Office had in a letter dated 25 Sept. 1990, the Swiss granting the counter right within the meaning of article 8 IRSG assured.
In Scotland the "Lockerbie case" is still officially declared as open. Now Ed. Bollier & MEBO AG urged, that during the ongoing criminal investigation, under the international legal assistance treaty with Scotland, among other things, the MST-13 fragment (PT-35) must be examined here in Switzerland, at the Forensic Institute of the Zurich cantonal police, in the presence of Scottish experts, Eng U. Lumpert and Ed. Bollier..
The fragment (PT-35) was also brought to foreign countries (Germany) to company Siemens, on 27 April 1990.
+++
Mit Note vom 1. Oktober 1990, wurde dem Schweizer Bundesamt für Polizeiwesen (BAP) ein internationales Rechtshilfeersuchen des Lord Advocate von Scotland, im Rahmen der Ermittlungen über den Absturz einer Luftverkehrsmaschine der Pan- Amercan World Airways über Lockerbie, bei dem 270 Personen den Tod fanden, übermittelt.
Das Britische Innenministerium hatte mit Schreiben vom 25. Sept. 1990
der Schweizerischen die Gewährung des Gegenrechtes im Sinne von Art.8 IRSG zugesichert.
Da in Scotland der "Lockerbie Fall" weiterhin offiziell als offen erklärt wurde, verlangt Ed. Bollier & MEBO AG, dass während der laufenden Strafuntersuchung, auf das gegenseitige internationale Rechtshilfeabkommen mit Scotland zurückgegriffen wird, und u.a. das Beweisfragment (PT-35) forensisch, hier in der Schweiz, beim Forensischen Institut der Kantonspolizei Zürich, in Anwesenheit schottischer Experten, Ing. U. Lumpert und Ed. Bollier, untersucht wird. Das Fragment (PT-35) wurde am 27. April 1990, auch ins Ausland zu Fa. Siemens, nach Deutschland gebracht.
by Edwin Bollier, MEBO ltd. Telecommunication Switzerland. Webpage: www.lockerbie.ch
"The SCCRC found nothing to undermine the Trial Court's conclusions about the timer fragment." - Crown Office Statement.
ReplyDelete"I have the greatest respect for the SCCRC" - Frank Mulholland.
As the SCCRC found that page 51 of Dr Hayes notes was "quite consistent" with photograph 117 when they are manifestly incompatible and as they found "no reason to doubt" the veracity of both page 51 and photograph 117 Dr Swire and his associates should demand the resignation of the Lord Advocate and the Director of the SCCRC before any further submission is made.
If the SCCRC had done their job properly Megrahi's freakish conviction would have been quashed years ago. (Of course if the defence team had noticed this glaring irregularity in the first place Megrahi would never have been convicted.)