Megrahi scapegoated

[What follows is the text of a column by George Galloway that was published in the Daily Record on this date in 2012:]

I've never believed the Lockerbie verdict that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was guilty of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.

Now the long hushed-up, 800-page report on the case by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has concluded that a miscarriage of justice almost certainly occurred.

The contents of the report had been known to those in the know - the Scottish government, senior lawyers, the dogs in the street even - for more than five years.

It hasn't been published on the spurious grounds that there were data protection issues involved.

I ask, in passing, has anyone ever been convicted under the Data Protection Act?

The report details six different grounds on which Megrahi could have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. I prefer the words fitted-up.

The whole report is now available on various websites, but basically the conclusion is that crucial evidence was not disclosed to the defence.

This includes a cover-up of secret intelligence ­documents and uncertainty over the date on which Megrahi was supposed to have bought clothes in Malta.

And the fact that the key witnesses against him had been paid £1.9million to testify, and one of the two Maltese brothers had a seen picture of Megrahi stating he was the bomber before he picked him out at an identification parade.

It's right that the report should be belatedly published, the follow-up should be an investigation of those who conspired to have Megrahi scapegoated.