Hundreds sign petition seeking inquiry into Lockerbie bomber conviction

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of Scotland on Sunday. It reads as follows:]

A petition urging ministers to hold an independent inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber has been signed by almost 1,000 people in its first week.

Campaigners launched the petition, calling on MSPs to put pressure on the Scottish Government to re-examine the evidence presented at the 2001 trial of Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. Since then, hundreds of signatories have come forward including award-winning novelists AL Kennedy, James Robertson, and Aonghas MacNeacail and senior figures within the legal community, such as Len Murray ... Ian Hamilton QC, most famous for stealing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey, and Hector MacQueen, the Scots law professor and a vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Notable signatories from outwith Scotland include Benedict Birnberg, the retired human rights solicitor who acted for Virgin tycoon Richard Branson and Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, among others, during his 40-year career.

The petition has also been signed by about 100 people from Malta, where the bomb which caused the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103, claiming 270 lives, was said to have been smuggled on board.

Some long-term Lockerbie campaigners, including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the mid-air explosion, believe that Megrahi, the only man convicted of playing a part in the atrocity and who was released from prison on compassionate grounds last year, is innocent. Robertson, a former Booker longlist nominee, whose latest novel, And The Land Stood Still, was published this month, said he had felt strongly about the Lockerbie issue for several years, but had only become "actively engaged" over the last year.

"When Megrahi was released the political shenanigans detracted attention from the important issue: the safety of the verdict at the Camp Zeist trial," he said.

"If you look at the original trial it seems the evidence on which Megrahi was convicted was very slight, in my view. Since then we've learned a lot more, but it hasn't been dealt with by the courts."

Robertson said he has taken a stand because he fears that when Megrahi dies, the truth will never be told. "It is crucial for the relatives because they feel, 22 years after the event, that they still don't know what happened and who was responsible," he said.

"There is also a stain on the Scottish justice system, as this does not look or feel right. As long as the answers are not addressed this stain will not be removed."

The petition was raised by the Justice for Megrahi campaign group, which includes Swire and Professor Robert Black QC, widely credited with coming up with the framework for Megrahi's unique trial, which was held in a foreign jurisdiction but under Scots law.

Dr Swire, who has long been convinced that Megrahi is innocent, said yesterday he was pleased with the response to date.

"No Scottish lawyer I know of believes in the integrity of the verdict. All it takes for this situation to continue is for good men to do nothing so I would urge people to sign the petition now."

Salmond hits back at Senate on Megrahi 'misinformation'

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Herald. It reads in part:]

Alex Salmond told John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, that despite attempts by the Scottish Government to set the record straight, “misinformation” was still given to the hearing looking into the circumstances surrounding the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

While not participating in the hearing, the Scottish Government moved behind the scenes to deny allegations Megrahi had been on chemotherapy in Scotland and that his prognosis was made by a primary care physician who did not have the expertise to determine how advanced his prostate cancer was.

But the claims were still put to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing and medical experts speaking at the Senate forum accepted he was undergoing chemotherapy and argued that would never have justified a three-month prognosis.

Mr Salmond said a letter intended to “set the record straight” had been passed to Senator Robert Menendez before he led the hearing.

It explained that Megrahi was not on chemotherapy while on Scottish soil and that the Libyan’s prognosis came from “the most senior health professional in the Scottish Prison Service”, its director of health and care, Dr Andrew Fraser.

Mr Salmond said: “It was therefore with intense disappointment that I noted that the same misinformation was presented to the hearing, unsupported by any evidence whatsoever, and no reference was made to the correction provided well in advance by the Scottish Government.

“The Scottish Government has made every effort to provide members of the US Senate and their staff with information to assist their understanding of the matter, and it is extremely unfortunate that the concerns that I expressed in my letter of September 10, 2010 ... about the prospects for a credible and impartial investigation, have been realised.

“I should therefore be grateful if you would investigate, as a matter of urgency, how the committee came to be misled in this manner at its hearing.”

MacAskill blast at US

[This is the headline over a report in today's Scottish edition of the The Sun. It reads in part:]

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday defended his record over his decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.

He told delegates at the SNP party conference he had "upheld the laws and followed the values of Scotland".

And he sparked huge applause when he hit out at US senators who tried to order him to Washington to face a grilling over the compassionate release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.

Mr MacAskill said it was a "great privilege" to be a member of the Scottish Parliament.

He added: "It is to that institution that I am answerable. To no other, irrespective of their status. Scotland's not the biggest country, but it's our homeland and we are proud of it."

[A snippet in The Scotsman reads as follows:]

The Kailyard Cup for the couthiest contribution to conference yet again goes to Kenny MacAskill. The old Scots saying "If ye fly wi the craws, yi get shot wi the craws" was how he summarised legislation cracking down on lawyers and accountants who turn a blind eye to crime.

Kenny added his own wee gem: "We've not got the best fitba' team in the world but they're oor team and we're proud of them. Scotland's not the biggest country in the world, but it's oor ain hameland and we're all proud of it."

Two standing-room-only showings of Lockerbie Revisited

Such was the interest in Gideon Levy's Lockerbie Revisited documentary at a Scottish National Party conference fringe event in Perth yesterday evening that a second showing of the film had to be hurriedly arranged. The event was sponsored by Christine Grahame MSP. Questions from the audience were answered by Ms Grahame, Dr Jim Swire and me.

The film can be viewed here. In this version (though not that shown in Perth) the commentary is in Dutch, though all of the interviews, of which the film mainly consists, are in English.

Weel-kent names on Megrahi petition signature list

Among the well-known names that appear on the list of signatories of the Megrahi petition are: Benedict Birnberg, William Gillies, Ian Hamilton QC, AL Kennedy, Hector MacQueen, Aonghas MacNeacail, Stephen Maxwell, Marcello Mega, Len Murray, Tessa Ransford, James Robertson, Kenneth Roy, John Scott, and Jock Thomson QC. There is also a Libyan signatory whose name appears as Khaled Elmegarhi. I believe this to be Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's eldest son.

At around 10am tomorrow, the e-petition will have been online for one week. In spite of almost complete silence from the mainstream media, it should by then have gathered in the region of one thousand signatures. It remains open for signature until 28 October.

Justice system "available to manipulation"

[This is the heading over a news item on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm. It reprises the views expressed by Dr Jim Swire in the article published in today's P & J, and continues as follows:]

Solicitor Eddie Mackechnie, who represented acquitted co-accused Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, told The Firm that the US intelligence services assured the Scots prosecution authorities before the trial that they possessed a "star witness" who could identify the two accused and place them at the centre of the events. Crucially, the key material was redacted and not disclosed until the trial proceedings were underway.

The testimony of that witness, Abdul Majid Giaka, was dismissed from consideration by the three judge bench, who noted in the verdict that he was salaried monthly by the CIA.

"We are unable to accept Abdul Majid as a credible and reliable witness on any matter," they said.

UN special observer Hans Koechler also criticised the interference of intelligence services in the trial and appeal proceedings.

Fresh inquiry call into Lockerbie bomber’s conviction

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Press and Journal, a daily newspaper circulating mainly in the North-East of Scotland. It reads in part:]

Justice for Megrahi group says verdict ‘fatally flawed’ and calls for ministers to re-examine trial evidence

The Scottish Government has been urged to launch an independent inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber.

Campaigners have called on MSPs to put pressure on SNP ministers to re-examine the evidence presented at the trial of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001.

A group called Justice for Megrahi claims the verdict was “fatally flawed” and says a fresh probe is needed to establish who was really responsible for the atrocity.

Group member Dr Jim Swire said the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had concluded that the Libyan’s trial may have been a miscarriage of justice.

The campaigner, whose 24-year-old daughter Flora was one of 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up and crashed into Lockerbie in 1988, said the verdict had damaged the reputation of Scotland’s justice system. (...)

Mr Swire said the group had lodged a petition at Holyrood calling for action because the UK and Scottish governments had been playing a “macabre game of ping-pong” over who was responsible for addressing claims Megrahi was wrongly convicted.

Mr Swire, who visited Mr Megrahi in Libya last month, said: “Almost everyone who has looked at the evidence has come to the conclusion it was fatally flawed.

“Megrahi was allowed to start a second appeal but when he saw a chance to get home to his family to die he decided to withdraw it.

“I understand why he did it, but it has left Scotland in a very difficult position.

“The justice system is regarded with scorn in many countries because there is a view that it is available to manipulation. We should be demanding this verdict is reviewed so we can start to recover the reputation of the justice system.”

The Scottish Government said it did not doubt the safety of Megrahi’s conviction but understood that others did.

A spokesman said ministers would be happy to co-operate fully with any inquiry but they were not in a position to order a probe because several countries had an interest.

“The questions to be asked and answered in any such inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots Law and the remit of the government,” he said. “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.”

Holyrood’s public petitions committee is expected to discuss the issue next month.

[The petition remains open for signature until 28 October.]

It's no joke

[This is the heading over a letter from Tom Minogue in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads as follows:]

Andy Parsons' show on BBC2 last Sunday night was hilarious. He had the audience rolling in the aisles as he drily dissected the quirks of British life: bankers, the teaching profession, politicians, the environment and traffic wardens, they all got it in the neck.

There was also a gag about the possibility the Lockerbie bomber was innocent, because, said Andy, the chief prosecution witness was paid $2 million by the FBI to testify, was then shown a photo of the suspect Megrahi, and was able to identify him at an identity parade in order to collect his millions.

This, said Andy, "was not justice, but more like a high-stakes version of the board game Guess Who?" Oh, how we laughed. But hold on: this was not scripted comedy material, this was fact.

So the Lockerbie trial, which until very recently took pride of place on the Crown Office website, is now right up there with the mother-in-law, traffic wardens and bankers as material for a stand-up comedian. World famous in a way, I suppose.

'Justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes.'

[This quotation forms the sub-heading over the account published today on the website of The Guardian of an interview with Gareth Peirce to mark the forthcoming publication (on 1 November) of her book Dispatches from the Dark Side: On Torture and the Death of Justice. The following is an excerpt from the interview:]

The story of the treatment of Giuseppe Conlon's corpse, when staff at Belfast Airport refused to handle the coffin, is told on the final page of Peirce's book: "His body was flown back to England three times. A British army officer, after Conlon's body was flown to Belfast a fourth time, informed the undertaker, 'It is on that plane but it is not coming off. The problem is the press have been notified and we can't be seen to be handling the body of an IRA man.'"

Peirce relates this incident not just to show how a lie can pursue an innocent man after his death, but to draw a parallel between the treatment of Giuseppe Conlon and Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan jailed for the Lockerbie plane bomb in 1988 in which 243 passengers and 16 crew were killed. Giuseppe, she writes, was wrongly convicted on disputed forensic scientific evidence, as later was al-Megrahi.

Peirce has no doubts that the Libyan, like the Conlons, was fitted up for a crime he did not commit by a British state prioritising its own supposed interests over justice. She writes: "Only a simpleton could believe that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi . . . was not recently returned to his home in Libya because it suited Britain considerably to have him do so. The political furore has been very obviously contrived, since both the British and American governments know perfectly well the history of how and for what reasons he came to be prosecuted."

There is, Peirce argues, "clear and compelling evidence" linking the bombing to a Palestinian splinter group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, which at the time hired itself out to regimes known to sponsor terrorism, notably Syria and Iran. On this account, Lockerbie was a tit-for-tat response to the US shooting down an Iranian plane and killing 290 passengers, including pilgrims flying to Mecca, in July that year. For two years, the Lockerbie investigation focused on that link. Then something changed, and the Palestinian splinter group was no longer in the frame for Lockerbie.

Scottish Government should stand up to the bullying and call the Americans’ bluff

[This is the heading over a letter in today's edition of The Herald by Iain McKie, committee member of Justice for Megrahi and father of Shirley McKie. It reads as follows:]

As we witness the American and British governments’ cynical attempts to shift the blame for Lockerbie on to the Scottish Government the critical question is: Will the SNP administration display courage, vision and leadership, stand up to this bullying and call their bluff? Will the Scottish Government offer them the inquiry they are all afraid of?

How can we blame other governments if the search for the truth about Lockerbie, a Scottish tragedy that occurred on Scottish soil which was investigated and prosecuted by Scottish authorities, is frustrated by our own government?

It is a legitimate question to ask – what right does a country have to self-determination if when given the opportunity to exercise that right it fails to do so?

Last week a public petition was submitted appealing to the Scottish Parliament to call on our government to launch an independent inquiry into this indelible stain on the Scottish justice system.

The petitioner’s hope is that people from home and abroad will add their voices to this call.

As Robert Burns so eloquently put it: “There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard but they whom the truth would indite.’”

The petition can be found at:
http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/view_petition.asp?PetitionID=417.

[Another letter in the same newspaper from Mrs Ann Yule contains the following:]

Just recently reading the biography of Edwin Morgan by James McGonigal - Beyond the Last Dragon - I discovered that when the poet was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, he was told by the consultant that he might survive for six months or six years, which demonstrates just how difficult it is to give an accurate timescale for cancer sufferers. As it was he survived for 11 years.

So let’s waste no more time on this and turn to the much more important aspect of the conviction of Megrahi on the unreliable evidence of one man, whose memory seemed to improve out of all proportion after being promised $2m by the CIA. Let’s focus our minds in the right direction.

Facebook group: Friends of Justice for Megrahi

A Facebook group Friends of Justice for Megrahi has been set up. It can be accessed here.

Aisha Gaddafi on Megrahi

[What follows is an excerpt from an interview with Colonel Gaddafi's daughter, Aisha, in today's edition of The Sunday Telegraph.]

A lawyer by training, her father's regime is not the only contentious cause she has spoken up for over the years. In her youth, just like her Dad, she was a keen supporter of the IRA, and three years ago, she was on the legal team that defended that other controversial Arab leader, Saddam Hussein. (...)

She is similarly bullish about the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, whose release last year on health grounds has caused such furore in Britain. (...)

"We have always viewed him as a detainee, not a prisoner, as there is no evidence that he commited such a crime," she says, adding that he deserves compensation for being locked up unjustly. "But it is terrible that there are politicians who are demanding to know why he is still alive. They have forgotten that it is an act of God. Nobody dies before his time."

Maltese urged to sign Lockerbie petition

[This is the headline over an article in today's edition of the Maltese newspaper The Sunday Times. It reads as follows:]

The organisers of a petition seeking to overturn a verdict against the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing have appealed to the Maltese to support a bid to prove his innocence and clear Malta’s link to the disaster.

The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish government to open an inde-pendent inquiry into the 2001 conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi for the bombing of a Pan Am aircraft in December 1988.

The petition is steered by Justice For Megrahi (JFM), an organisation which includes a number of British victims’ relatives, and individuals like world-renowned philosopher Noam Chomsky and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Mr Al-Megrahi’s decision to drop his appeal in order to return to Libya after he was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 means there is currently no means in Scotland by which the verdict may be re-examined.

JFM believes it could convince the authorities to re-examine what it calls one of the biggest miscarriages of justice to associate Libya with one of the worst terrorist attacks. The Pan Am 747 was bound for New York when it exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.

Mr Al-Megrahi was convicted after Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci claimed the Libyan had bought the clothes used to conceal the bomb.

The Libyan was then accused of managing to elude security at Luqa airport by loading the suitcase containing a bomb unaccom panied on an Air Malta flight to Frankfurt, whereupon it was transferred, again unaccom panied, to a further flight to London. At Heathrow, it was finally loaded on to the target aircraft.

Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, appealed to the Maltese to support the call for an independent inquiry.

“There are serious doubts about the verdict and there are very serious doubts on the evidence given by Tony Gauci, who we now know was rewarded for his testimony,” he told The Sunday Times.

Those who studied the evidence know the atrocity was not caused by some device which originated from Malta and there is clear evidence that Mr Al-Megrahi never bought the clothing from the (Sliema) shop, Dr Swire said.

JFM representative Robert Forrester insisted that in the hope that Mr Gauci could identify the purchaser of the clothing from his shop, investigators had repeatedly shown him spreads of pictures of Mr Al-Megrahi.

Mr Forrester said evidence which emerged later showed that Mr Gauci and his brother were given money through the US Rewards for Justice Programme arrangement.

“Mr Al-Megrahi’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal, on no fewer than six grounds, in part due to the testimony of Mr Gauci.”

Furthermore, there is also the issue of the respective security regimes at Luqa, Frankfurt and Heathrow. Before the trial, the regimes of all three airports were expertly assessed – with Luqa coming out on top.

In addition, 18 hours before the Pam Am aircraft’s departure, someone broke into Heathrow airside giving access to the area in the vicinity of the Pan Am shed.

This information was known to the UK authorities well in advance of the trial but was not made public until after the verdict was announced.

While the JFM campaign acts to see Mr Al-Megrahi’s name cleared of the crime, it is also committed to seeing both the reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system and the good name of Malta restored, Mr Forrester said.

“Both Malta and Scotland are victims of what is tantamount to a criminal injustice by this verdict. This is an issue that goes beyond our obvious sympathy for Mr Al-Megrahi.

“The Maltese people won the George Cross for their extraordinary bravery during adversity of the Second World War, only to see their name tainted by what occurred at Camp Zeist – this is a gross and unconscionable insult.

“Ask yourself this. What would you do if you wanted to place a bomb on a plane departing from Heathrow? Place it, unaccompanied, on a flight leaving Malta for Frankfurt to eventually be transferred to London in the hope that it would evade the security at three airports, or would you opt for the more obvious and more likely to succeed choice of simply singling out Heathrow?

“The three judges, who were also the jury, clearly preferred the more fantastical solution.”

The petition (available on http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/list_petitions.asp) will run until October 28.

New PM, same old Tory

[This is the heading over a letter by Graeme H Bettison in today's edition of the Sunday Herald. It reads as follows:]

Lots of stupid things are said, especially at party conferences. My award goes to Prime Minister Cameron, quoted as saying that the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber was wrong and that “nothing like that must ever happen again”. How stupid is that?

For one, how many other Libyan nationals are in our prisons? Also, Mr Cameron is the one person who really could act on his own words. He could undo the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya, but perhaps that was not something he had included in his election manifesto. [Note by RB: The UK Government could, of course, scrap the UK-Libya PTA. But that was not the mechanism whereby Mr Megrahi was released. The UK Government could not, under the current constitutional arrangements, scrap compassionate release. Justice and prisons are devolved to Holyrood.]

I wonder whether it might just be another of his hollow, stupid things to say – to side himself with those who found the Scottish Government’s decision difficult, if not impossible, to accept – and so use the tragedy as a party-political point-scorer.

I had, once, hoped that the mold of the last Tory era was something that should never happen again. The “generation game” conveyor belt of policies and on-the-hoof dancing around are more akin to Saturday night TV than proper government, and this makes me feel that it was a stupid thing for me to hope for.

After all, I am only a “thick” Scot.

Scottish Parliament e-Petition: Justice for Megrahi

This is the title of an e-Petition just submitted to the Scottish Parliament, calling on the Parliament "to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 Kamp van Zeist conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988." For reasons related to forthcoming changes in the Parliament's procedures, the petition is open for signature only until 28 October 2010. The full text of the petition can be viewed here. It can be signed on the same web page by anyone, anywhere in the world, who approves of its terms.

Related items on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here and here and here. Newsnet Scotland's coverage can be read here.