[What follows is an excerpt from a report published this afternoon by The Press Association news agency:]
A senior Scottish Government minister has backed Justice Committee
convenor Christine Grahame amid allegations that she made sectarian
remarks.
The Electoral Commission is investigating the allegations made by Mark Hirst, a former senior political advisor in her office.
She
faced calls by Labour MSP Michael McMahon to "consider her position on
the Justice Committee until such times as any investigation into this
matter has been completed".
However, Justice Secretary Kenny
MacAskill said Ms Grahame has "rebutted these matters firmly" and the
allegations should be viewed "with the contempt they deserve".
Mr
MacAskill also said he will stand by the conviction of the only man
convicted of the Lockerbie bombing "until such time as that matter were
to be reviewed". (...)
Ms Grahame is also a member of the Justice for Megrahi campaign.
Earlier
this week, she spearheaded calls to continue a petition by the group
calling for an independent inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset
al-Megrahi for his role in the Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270
people in 1988.
[Further details can be found here on the Herald Scotland website.
It lies, of course, within the powers of the government of which Kenny MacAskill is a member to have the matter of Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction reviewed. That is precisely what is sought in the petition currently before the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament and is precisely what the Scottish Government has been assiduously obstructing.
The Official Report of Tuesday's meeting of the Justice Committee at which the petition was discussed can be read here (at pages 11 to 15 of the PDF document).]
Friday, 11 November 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Drugs 'keep Lockerbie bomber alive'
[This is the headline over a report published today by The Press Association news agency following an appearance by Dr Karol Sikora on the BBC Daily Politics programme. It reads as follows:]
A cancer expert who examined the Lockerbie bomber in prison has said he is being kept alive by "experimental drugs".
Professor Karol Sikora said that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being given medication not available on the NHS.
Megrahi was controversially freed from prison on compassionate grounds more than two years ago after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He was said to be three months from death when he was released from Greenock prison on August 20 2009 following a decision by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Megrahi returned to Libya upon his release. Cancer expert Prof Sikora was asked by the Libyan government to provide an independent medical assessment of Megrahi and visited him in prison in July that year.
On the BBC Daily Politics show, he was asked: "You did the health assessment of al-Megrahi giving him three months to live or thereabouts. He is still alive. How has he managed to survive so long more than two years later?"
He replied: "He has been on experimental drugs, including one that was developed in the UK and is not available on the NHS, which is quite ironic." He added: "My opinion wasn't taken into account by the Scottish Government. Nine doctors looked at it and they all said three months. They were using standard NHS practice in Glasgow in 2008, 2009."
Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Mr al-Megrahi is an extremely sick man, dying of terminal prostate cancer. He was released on compassionate grounds based on the recommendations of the Parole Board, the prison governor and the medical report of the Scottish Prison Service's most senior health professional, Dr Andrew Fraser.
"Dr Fraser is a professional of impeccable integrity and he concluded that his clinical assessment was that a three-month prognosis was a reasonable estimate, drawing on the work of a range of specialists and other Scottish health service professionals involved in al-Megrahi's care from when he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2008."
[During most of my tenure of office as Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh, law and medicine students graduated in the same ceremony. The medical graduands were required to swear an oath to the effect, inter alia, that things learned about patients in the course of medical practice would not, save for weighty cause, be divulged. Dr Sikora is not an Edinburgh graduate.]
A cancer expert who examined the Lockerbie bomber in prison has said he is being kept alive by "experimental drugs".
Professor Karol Sikora said that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was being given medication not available on the NHS.
Megrahi was controversially freed from prison on compassionate grounds more than two years ago after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He was said to be three months from death when he was released from Greenock prison on August 20 2009 following a decision by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Megrahi returned to Libya upon his release. Cancer expert Prof Sikora was asked by the Libyan government to provide an independent medical assessment of Megrahi and visited him in prison in July that year.
On the BBC Daily Politics show, he was asked: "You did the health assessment of al-Megrahi giving him three months to live or thereabouts. He is still alive. How has he managed to survive so long more than two years later?"
He replied: "He has been on experimental drugs, including one that was developed in the UK and is not available on the NHS, which is quite ironic." He added: "My opinion wasn't taken into account by the Scottish Government. Nine doctors looked at it and they all said three months. They were using standard NHS practice in Glasgow in 2008, 2009."
Megrahi is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988, killing 270 people.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Mr al-Megrahi is an extremely sick man, dying of terminal prostate cancer. He was released on compassionate grounds based on the recommendations of the Parole Board, the prison governor and the medical report of the Scottish Prison Service's most senior health professional, Dr Andrew Fraser.
"Dr Fraser is a professional of impeccable integrity and he concluded that his clinical assessment was that a three-month prognosis was a reasonable estimate, drawing on the work of a range of specialists and other Scottish health service professionals involved in al-Megrahi's care from when he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2008."
[During most of my tenure of office as Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh, law and medicine students graduated in the same ceremony. The medical graduands were required to swear an oath to the effect, inter alia, that things learned about patients in the course of medical practice would not, save for weighty cause, be divulged. Dr Sikora is not an Edinburgh graduate.]
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Justice not served: Those involved with Pan Am Flight 103 still troubled by al-Megrahi’s release
[This is the headline over a long report in today's edition of The Daily Orange, the newspaper of Syracuse University, New Jersey, thirty-five of whose students died on Pan Am 103. It contains quotes from Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am 103 Inc (not himself a Lockerbie relative), Susan Cohen (mother of one of the Syracuse students) and Brian Murtagh, a US Justice Department prosecutor at the time who worked on the case and, indeed, formed part of the Lord Advocate's prosecution team in the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. The views of Mr Duggan and Mrs Cohen are well known. I therefore confine myself to reproducing the sections relating to Mr Murtagh (wrongly given as "Murtaugh" in the article itself).]
The Scottish and U.S. governments worked to study evidence from the site of the bombing, said Brian Murtaugh, then a Justice Department prosecutor. Pieces of cloth, metal from the aircraft and the remains of the suitcase that held the bomb were recovered, he said. A storekeeper in Malta said he sold the clothes that were recovered from the site to al-Megrahi. A double agent stepped forward with testimony, although Murtaugh said it was later discovered that the witness exaggerated his involvement. (...)
Murtaugh, who worked on the case for more than two decades, said if al-Megrahi had been tried in the United States, it would have been less likely for him to be released on compassionate grounds.
"A life sentence in the federal system means a life sentence," he said.
Through all the conflict, as well as the confusion of a foreign legal system, families of the victims wanted to be involved. The Justice Department funded flights to Scotland and provided access to al-Megrahi and Fhimah's trial, and closed-circuit televisions were set up in New York. (...)
After 23 years, the case remains open. Few have details on how the crime was orchestrated. Gadhafi died at the hands of his own people in October and al-Megrahi still claims his innocence.
The Scottish and U.S. governments continue to investigate the case with the hope of finding more people involved. Someone had to make the bomb; someone else must have delivered it, Murtaugh said.
Closure may be impossible, he said, but people still want to know what happened.
"Trials are an imperfect vehicle to bring justice in a sense of making the victims whole," Murtaugh said. "We can never make them whole. We can never bring back the decedent."
The Scottish and U.S. governments worked to study evidence from the site of the bombing, said Brian Murtaugh, then a Justice Department prosecutor. Pieces of cloth, metal from the aircraft and the remains of the suitcase that held the bomb were recovered, he said. A storekeeper in Malta said he sold the clothes that were recovered from the site to al-Megrahi. A double agent stepped forward with testimony, although Murtaugh said it was later discovered that the witness exaggerated his involvement. (...)
Murtaugh, who worked on the case for more than two decades, said if al-Megrahi had been tried in the United States, it would have been less likely for him to be released on compassionate grounds.
"A life sentence in the federal system means a life sentence," he said.
Through all the conflict, as well as the confusion of a foreign legal system, families of the victims wanted to be involved. The Justice Department funded flights to Scotland and provided access to al-Megrahi and Fhimah's trial, and closed-circuit televisions were set up in New York. (...)
After 23 years, the case remains open. Few have details on how the crime was orchestrated. Gadhafi died at the hands of his own people in October and al-Megrahi still claims his innocence.
The Scottish and U.S. governments continue to investigate the case with the hope of finding more people involved. Someone had to make the bomb; someone else must have delivered it, Murtaugh said.
Closure may be impossible, he said, but people still want to know what happened.
"Trials are an imperfect vehicle to bring justice in a sense of making the victims whole," Murtaugh said. "We can never make them whole. We can never bring back the decedent."
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Justice Committee votes to keep Megrahi petition open
[The following account of this morning's discussion of the Justice for Megrahi petition (PE 1370) in the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee comes from Patrick Haseldine:]
On 8 November 2011, the Justice Committee decided by six votes in favour [SNP and Lib-Dem] and three against [Labour and Conservative] to keep open the Justice for Megrahi petition (PE 1370), which calls upon the Scottish Government to institute an inquiry into Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
James Kelly MSP [Labour, deputy convener], brother of Megrahi's former solicitor Tony Kelly, argued strongly that the court is the correct route for testing the soundness of criminal convictions. He could see no role for the Justice Committee to consider the JFM petition further.
However, Justice Committee convener, Christine Grahame MSP [Scottish National Party], said the petition should be kept open until all the parts of the legislative jigsaw come together: there was unfinished business in relation to the Lockerbie trial; the conclusions of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's unpublished report remain untested; the SCCRC's power to refer cases back to the Appeal Court is being restricted; and Lord Carloway, who is currently reviewing law and practice of criminal investigations, is due to publish his report on 17 November 2011.
[The report just published by The Press Association news agency reads as follows:]
MSPs have voted to continue a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for his role in the Lockerbie bombing.
Holyrood's Justice Committee met to consider the petition by the Justice for Megrahi campaign, a group calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 conviction of Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988 which killed 270 people.
SNP MSP Christine Grahame, the committee's convenor and a member of the Justice for Megrahi group, went head-to-head with Labour's James Kelly, vice-convenor and brother of Scottish lawyer Tony Kelly, who has acted for Megrahi, over whether the petition should continue.
He added: "Obviously it's an ongoing situation, particularly after recent events, and new information is continuing to come to the fore. I think the relevant place for that information to be considered is by the Scottish police and Scottish prosecutors, and as such I don't think there's a role for this committee to consider this petition further."
Ms Grahame declared her membership of Justice For Megrahi and her "particularly high profile in arguing that his conviction is unsound".
She said: "The Justice Committee is not being asked to conduct a public inquiry via the committee. We're being asked whether or not there should be a public inquiry. I think the committee will agree that this is unfinished business. We had the abandonment of the second part of the appeal, with the SCCRC report untested, in extraordinary circumstances."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government would welcome a wide-ranging inquiry into the circumstances of the Lockerbie atrocity and we stand ready to assist in any way we can.
"However, given the international dimensions to this issue, the scope of any such inquiry goes well beyond the restricted remit and responsibilities of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament, and would therefore have to be convened by those with the required powers. Scottish authorities would co-operate in full in any such inquiry.
"Scotland's justice system has been dealing with the Lockerbie atrocity for nearly 23 years, and in every regard the due process of Scots Law has been followed - in terms of the investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, rejection of the prisoner transfer application and granting of compassionate release.
"We believe that the SCCRC Statement of Reasons should be in the public domain and that is precisely why we are introducing a Bill later this year to facilitate publication. The Bill is necessary in order to overcome objections by interested parties preventing any publication."
[The report in the edition of The Herald for Wednesday, 9 November can be read here; that in The Scotsman can be read here.]
On 8 November 2011, the Justice Committee decided by six votes in favour [SNP and Lib-Dem] and three against [Labour and Conservative] to keep open the Justice for Megrahi petition (PE 1370), which calls upon the Scottish Government to institute an inquiry into Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
James Kelly MSP [Labour, deputy convener], brother of Megrahi's former solicitor Tony Kelly, argued strongly that the court is the correct route for testing the soundness of criminal convictions. He could see no role for the Justice Committee to consider the JFM petition further.
However, Justice Committee convener, Christine Grahame MSP [Scottish National Party], said the petition should be kept open until all the parts of the legislative jigsaw come together: there was unfinished business in relation to the Lockerbie trial; the conclusions of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's unpublished report remain untested; the SCCRC's power to refer cases back to the Appeal Court is being restricted; and Lord Carloway, who is currently reviewing law and practice of criminal investigations, is due to publish his report on 17 November 2011.
[The report just published by The Press Association news agency reads as follows:]
MSPs have voted to continue a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for his role in the Lockerbie bombing.
Holyrood's Justice Committee met to consider the petition by the Justice for Megrahi campaign, a group calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 conviction of Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988 which killed 270 people.
SNP MSP Christine Grahame, the committee's convenor and a member of the Justice for Megrahi group, went head-to-head with Labour's James Kelly, vice-convenor and brother of Scottish lawyer Tony Kelly, who has acted for Megrahi, over whether the petition should continue.
He added: "Obviously it's an ongoing situation, particularly after recent events, and new information is continuing to come to the fore. I think the relevant place for that information to be considered is by the Scottish police and Scottish prosecutors, and as such I don't think there's a role for this committee to consider this petition further."
Ms Grahame declared her membership of Justice For Megrahi and her "particularly high profile in arguing that his conviction is unsound".
She said: "The Justice Committee is not being asked to conduct a public inquiry via the committee. We're being asked whether or not there should be a public inquiry. I think the committee will agree that this is unfinished business. We had the abandonment of the second part of the appeal, with the SCCRC report untested, in extraordinary circumstances."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government would welcome a wide-ranging inquiry into the circumstances of the Lockerbie atrocity and we stand ready to assist in any way we can.
"However, given the international dimensions to this issue, the scope of any such inquiry goes well beyond the restricted remit and responsibilities of the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament, and would therefore have to be convened by those with the required powers. Scottish authorities would co-operate in full in any such inquiry.
"Scotland's justice system has been dealing with the Lockerbie atrocity for nearly 23 years, and in every regard the due process of Scots Law has been followed - in terms of the investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, rejection of the prisoner transfer application and granting of compassionate release.
"We believe that the SCCRC Statement of Reasons should be in the public domain and that is precisely why we are introducing a Bill later this year to facilitate publication. The Bill is necessary in order to overcome objections by interested parties preventing any publication."
[The report in the edition of The Herald for Wednesday, 9 November can be read here; that in The Scotsman can be read here.]
Lockerbie petition goes before MSPs
[This is the headline over a report published today by the The Press Association news agency. It reads in part:]
A petition calling for an inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber is to be looked at by Holyrood's Justice Committee.
The petition, brought forward by the pressure group Justice For Megrahi (JFM), has been passed on to the committee after being kept open by MSPs on the Petitions Committee earlier this year.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was controversially freed from prison on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and had been staging a second appeal against his conviction.
But he dropped it in the run-up to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision to release him in August 2009.
About 1,500 people signed the JFM petition before it was lodged at the Scottish Parliament.
The pressure group, which includes Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the tragedy, and Professor Robert Black QC has also sent a written submission to the Justice Committee.
It said: "It is time for the government of Scotland to show real independence by standing up to the UK and US governments and other vested interests and instituting an open and accountable judicial inquiry that would at last free the people of Scotland and the relatives of those lost in that terrible tragedy 22 years ago."
[An item in the Diary column of today's edition of The Independent reads as follows:]
Somewhere in Libya there is a man who should have died two years ago, according to the prognosis of his Scottish doctors. Today, the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament will take formal note of a petition signed by more than 1,600 people who believe the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was framed.
The suspicion, which is not as crazy as the conspiracy theories that swirled out of the al-Qa'ida atrocities on 9/11, is that Iran ordered the destruction of Pan Am flight 103, which crashed into the village of Lockerbie, in South-west Scotland, on 21 December 1988, but that it was diplomatically convenient to blame Libya, and it later suited Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to accept the blame to end his country's isolation. Whether this is true or false may be verifiable if Libya opens up its archives.
Meanwhile, there has been speculation about how ill Megrahi really is, in the light of his failure to die on schedule. The US State Department is making noises about having him extradited, to which the Libyan National Transitional Council's reaction has been along the lines that the Americans are welcome to him.
Lord Laird, an Ulster peer, suggested last week that the matter of Megrahi's health could be cleared up if someone from the British embassy in Tripoli popped round to see him, but the Foreign Office said no. This is a devolved matter. Megrahi is in the same position as anyone convicted of a crime in that part of rural Scotland and released under supervision. He is the responsibility of East Renfrewshire Council.
Every week, someone from council headquarters in Giffnock calls a telephone number in Libya. Calls cost 15p a minute, and last four to five minutes, so the extra cost borne by the council is about 10p a day. The council says that Megrahi is seriously ill, and complying with the terms of his supervision order, but will not give out any more detail.
The position in international law is cloudy, but it would seem that if Hillary Clinton really wants Megrahi put on trial in the US, she will have to ask the council, since Megrahi is under its supervision. East Renfrewshire has a population of 86,500.
A petition calling for an inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber is to be looked at by Holyrood's Justice Committee.
The petition, brought forward by the pressure group Justice For Megrahi (JFM), has been passed on to the committee after being kept open by MSPs on the Petitions Committee earlier this year.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was controversially freed from prison on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and had been staging a second appeal against his conviction.
But he dropped it in the run-up to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision to release him in August 2009.
About 1,500 people signed the JFM petition before it was lodged at the Scottish Parliament.
The pressure group, which includes Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the tragedy, and Professor Robert Black QC has also sent a written submission to the Justice Committee.
It said: "It is time for the government of Scotland to show real independence by standing up to the UK and US governments and other vested interests and instituting an open and accountable judicial inquiry that would at last free the people of Scotland and the relatives of those lost in that terrible tragedy 22 years ago."
[An item in the Diary column of today's edition of The Independent reads as follows:]
Somewhere in Libya there is a man who should have died two years ago, according to the prognosis of his Scottish doctors. Today, the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament will take formal note of a petition signed by more than 1,600 people who believe the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was framed.
The suspicion, which is not as crazy as the conspiracy theories that swirled out of the al-Qa'ida atrocities on 9/11, is that Iran ordered the destruction of Pan Am flight 103, which crashed into the village of Lockerbie, in South-west Scotland, on 21 December 1988, but that it was diplomatically convenient to blame Libya, and it later suited Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to accept the blame to end his country's isolation. Whether this is true or false may be verifiable if Libya opens up its archives.
Meanwhile, there has been speculation about how ill Megrahi really is, in the light of his failure to die on schedule. The US State Department is making noises about having him extradited, to which the Libyan National Transitional Council's reaction has been along the lines that the Americans are welcome to him.
Lord Laird, an Ulster peer, suggested last week that the matter of Megrahi's health could be cleared up if someone from the British embassy in Tripoli popped round to see him, but the Foreign Office said no. This is a devolved matter. Megrahi is in the same position as anyone convicted of a crime in that part of rural Scotland and released under supervision. He is the responsibility of East Renfrewshire Council.
Every week, someone from council headquarters in Giffnock calls a telephone number in Libya. Calls cost 15p a minute, and last four to five minutes, so the extra cost borne by the council is about 10p a day. The council says that Megrahi is seriously ill, and complying with the terms of his supervision order, but will not give out any more detail.
The position in international law is cloudy, but it would seem that if Hillary Clinton really wants Megrahi put on trial in the US, she will have to ask the council, since Megrahi is under its supervision. East Renfrewshire has a population of 86,500.
Monday, 7 November 2011
The importance of the rule of law
[This is the title of an address given by the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller III, at the National Symposium for United States Court of Appeals Judges, held in Washington DC on 4 November 2011. It reads in part:]
We in the FBI face significant and evolving criminal and terrorist threats. Regardless of the threats we face or the changes we make, we must act within the confines of the Constitution and the rule of law -- every day, in every investigation. Indeed, the rule of law remains our guiding principle -- our lodestar. (...)
How do we prosecute a case where the crime has migrated from one country to the next, with victims around the world? How do we overcome these jurisdictional hurdles and distinctions in the law from country to country?
As a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, I worked with our counterparts in Scotland to investigate the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. With this attack, terrorism hit home for Americans in a profound way.
But for those of us in law enforcement, it brought to light the importance of international partnerships as a bridge between conflicting legal systems. It also brought to light the need for a global presence to meet global threats.
Investigators from Scotland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States worked together in ways we had never experienced before. Partnerships like those forged in Lockerbie have never been more important.
Today, we all understand that working side-by-side is not just the best option, it is the only option. (...)
The FBI has always adapted to meet new threats. And we must continue to evolve to prevent terrorist and criminal attacks, because terrorists and criminals certainly will. But our values can never change.
Regardless of emerging threats, the impact of globalization, or changing technology, the rule of law will remain our guiding principle.
It is fair to say that the FBI has had missteps over the years. But these missteps and mistakes have provided opportunities to improve. And though it may be a cliché to say we have come out of such situations stronger and smarter, it is true.
[Some other Lockerbie-related contributions from and about Mr Mueller can be read here, here and here.]
We in the FBI face significant and evolving criminal and terrorist threats. Regardless of the threats we face or the changes we make, we must act within the confines of the Constitution and the rule of law -- every day, in every investigation. Indeed, the rule of law remains our guiding principle -- our lodestar. (...)
How do we prosecute a case where the crime has migrated from one country to the next, with victims around the world? How do we overcome these jurisdictional hurdles and distinctions in the law from country to country?
As a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, I worked with our counterparts in Scotland to investigate the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. With this attack, terrorism hit home for Americans in a profound way.
But for those of us in law enforcement, it brought to light the importance of international partnerships as a bridge between conflicting legal systems. It also brought to light the need for a global presence to meet global threats.
Investigators from Scotland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United States worked together in ways we had never experienced before. Partnerships like those forged in Lockerbie have never been more important.
Today, we all understand that working side-by-side is not just the best option, it is the only option. (...)
The FBI has always adapted to meet new threats. And we must continue to evolve to prevent terrorist and criminal attacks, because terrorists and criminals certainly will. But our values can never change.
Regardless of emerging threats, the impact of globalization, or changing technology, the rule of law will remain our guiding principle.
It is fair to say that the FBI has had missteps over the years. But these missteps and mistakes have provided opportunities to improve. And though it may be a cliché to say we have come out of such situations stronger and smarter, it is true.
[Some other Lockerbie-related contributions from and about Mr Mueller can be read here, here and here.]
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Evidence Syrians bombed Pan Am flight 103
[This is the headline over a report by Lucy Adams on page 2 of today's edition of The Herald. The article, which does not appear on the newspaper's website, reads in part:]
Study casts Libyan as fall-guy
Fresh evidence on the Lockerbie bombing has been lodged with MSPs as part of the most comprehensive dossier on the atrocity to go before the Scottish Parliament.
The report to the Justice Committee, which will include evidence thrown up by the recent conflict in Libya, will make the case for a full judicial inquiry into the case.
One of its key findings is that even at the time of the indictment of two Libyans, intelligence was suggesting the bomb had been provided by a Syrian terror group.
The report includes a document from Dr Jim Swire (...) which provides a summary of a new academic report citing major inconsistencies in the public and private views of the intelligence community.
The paper also raises concerns about major anomalies in the forensic evidence. (...)
Dr Swire says the report from the internationally renowned Centre for Conflict Resolution at Bradford University makes it clear the investigation into the case was "deeply dependent upon the intelligence agencies of Britain and America".
He says: "The paper shows that even by the time of the indictments against the two Libyans by Scotland and America at the end of 1991, American intelligence still believed the Lockerbie bomb had been provided by a Syrian terror group.
"American intelligence also knew the Syrian bombs could be kept at ground level indefinitely without exploding, but that once on an aircraft they sensed the drop in air pressure following take-off and would then inevitably explode within 35 - 45 minutes after leaving the ground, this timing not being adjustable. The Lockerbie plane had flown for 38 minutes before being destroyed.
"The paper records that throughout most of the intervening months America had therefore been pressing for the expulsion of the leader (Ahmed Jibril) of a Syrian terrorist group (the PFLP-GC) in the belief they had supplied the bomb that destroyed the Lockerbie aircraft. Bombs of this type were unique to the Syrian PFLP-GC group."
Robert Black (...) told The Herald: "The fact they were trying to extradite Megrahi when they still believed another man was responsible, shows that privately they were saying Jibril was responsible yet publicly they wanted to blame someone else.
"The Libyan scenario was never intended to stand up in court. It was simply intended to be good enough to convince the media in the US and UK someone had been caught. But lo and behold they were lucky enough to get a bench of judges that swallowed it hook line and sinker."
The submission also includes a supplement from John Ashton who is Megrahi's official biographer.
He states: "I have had access to all the disclosed Crown evidence; the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's statement of reasons, on the basis of which it granted him a second appeal against conviction; and all the evidence that would have been aired at Mr Megrahi's second appeal. Uniquely, I have interviewed Mr Megrahi numerous times, both in prison and in Tripoli. On the basis of everything that I have learned, I am convinced, not only that Mr Megrahi was wrongly convicted, but, more importantly, that the case is a huge scandal for the Scottish criminal justice system." (...)
[The report has at last -- Saturday evening -- been posted on the Herald Scotland website. It can be read here.]
Study casts Libyan as fall-guy
Fresh evidence on the Lockerbie bombing has been lodged with MSPs as part of the most comprehensive dossier on the atrocity to go before the Scottish Parliament.
The report to the Justice Committee, which will include evidence thrown up by the recent conflict in Libya, will make the case for a full judicial inquiry into the case.
One of its key findings is that even at the time of the indictment of two Libyans, intelligence was suggesting the bomb had been provided by a Syrian terror group.
The report includes a document from Dr Jim Swire (...) which provides a summary of a new academic report citing major inconsistencies in the public and private views of the intelligence community.
The paper also raises concerns about major anomalies in the forensic evidence. (...)
Dr Swire says the report from the internationally renowned Centre for Conflict Resolution at Bradford University makes it clear the investigation into the case was "deeply dependent upon the intelligence agencies of Britain and America".
He says: "The paper shows that even by the time of the indictments against the two Libyans by Scotland and America at the end of 1991, American intelligence still believed the Lockerbie bomb had been provided by a Syrian terror group.
"American intelligence also knew the Syrian bombs could be kept at ground level indefinitely without exploding, but that once on an aircraft they sensed the drop in air pressure following take-off and would then inevitably explode within 35 - 45 minutes after leaving the ground, this timing not being adjustable. The Lockerbie plane had flown for 38 minutes before being destroyed.
"The paper records that throughout most of the intervening months America had therefore been pressing for the expulsion of the leader (Ahmed Jibril) of a Syrian terrorist group (the PFLP-GC) in the belief they had supplied the bomb that destroyed the Lockerbie aircraft. Bombs of this type were unique to the Syrian PFLP-GC group."
Robert Black (...) told The Herald: "The fact they were trying to extradite Megrahi when they still believed another man was responsible, shows that privately they were saying Jibril was responsible yet publicly they wanted to blame someone else.
"The Libyan scenario was never intended to stand up in court. It was simply intended to be good enough to convince the media in the US and UK someone had been caught. But lo and behold they were lucky enough to get a bench of judges that swallowed it hook line and sinker."
The submission also includes a supplement from John Ashton who is Megrahi's official biographer.
He states: "I have had access to all the disclosed Crown evidence; the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's statement of reasons, on the basis of which it granted him a second appeal against conviction; and all the evidence that would have been aired at Mr Megrahi's second appeal. Uniquely, I have interviewed Mr Megrahi numerous times, both in prison and in Tripoli. On the basis of everything that I have learned, I am convinced, not only that Mr Megrahi was wrongly convicted, but, more importantly, that the case is a huge scandal for the Scottish criminal justice system." (...)
[The report has at last -- Saturday evening -- been posted on the Herald Scotland website. It can be read here.]
Friday, 4 November 2011
Papers for Scottish Parliament Justice Committee session
The papers that will be before the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee at its meeting on Tuesday, 8 November 2011 at 10.30 in Committee Room 2 can be found here. The papers relating to the Justice for Megrahi petition (PE 1370) can be found at pages 31 to 85 of the PDF document. The submission prepared by the Justice for Megrahi Committee for this meeting is at pages 63 to 85.
A related news item on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here.
A related news item on the website of Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here.
Father of Lockerbie victim fears US plans to ‘abduct’ Megrahi
[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]
The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has accused the US government of trying to “abduct” the only man convicted of the crime after it emerged it will seek to extradite him from Libya.
Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter Flora was on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was blown up in December 1988, spoke out after the US state department indicated it intended to take advantage of the new Libyan government’s decision to allow Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to be deported.
Megrahi is the only man convicted of the atrocity, but many British relatives have questioned the guilty verdict while American relatives believe he was responsible. (...)
Dr Swire described the US’s attempts to bring Megrahi to America and put him in prison as “vindictive” and questioned the validity of the move under international law.
He said: “What they want to do is take him [Megrahi] off to prison in America.
“But the US agreed that Megrahi should be tried under Scottish law and subject to its decisions. This would be the opposite of that.
“Effectively this would be an abduction of Megrahi because it would have no legal status. He is out on licence from a Scottish prison and if he is taken to America he would actually be in breach of that licence. So this is a complete legal mess.”
He added: “I am appalled by the idea. Megrahi should be left in peace to enjoy his last few weeks of life.”
The move by America to extradite Megrahi came after a senior minister in the new Libyan government said the bomber no longer enjoyed the VIP status he was granted by ousted president Muammar al-Gaddafi.
This means Libyans are willing to allow foreign governments to request his extradition, which would allow the bomber to face another trial – in America.
The US state department has said it intends to take advantage of this development.
A spokesman for the state department said it was ready to make a “formal approach” to Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC).
The new regime in Libya has made it clear it has no intention of protecting those who were close to Gaddafi.
NTC information minister Mahmoud Shamam said: “Basically, we don’t care what happens to him. He can live his life however he wants, provided there is no legal reason why he shouldn’t.
“For example, if the Scottish [or the US] want to get him back, they can apply through the courts and we would respect any such application.”
Last month, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US believes Megrahi should be returned to prison.
Meanwhile, the US Senate is also preparing to put pressure on Libya’s new government to launch a formal inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez said: “We know that Megrahi didn’t act alone, and I will continue to press the new government until all the facts are revealed and we can bring some sense of final closure to the hundreds of families who are still waiting.”
The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has accused the US government of trying to “abduct” the only man convicted of the crime after it emerged it will seek to extradite him from Libya.
Jim Swire, whose 24-year-old daughter Flora was on Pan Am Flight 103 when it was blown up in December 1988, spoke out after the US state department indicated it intended to take advantage of the new Libyan government’s decision to allow Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to be deported.
Megrahi is the only man convicted of the atrocity, but many British relatives have questioned the guilty verdict while American relatives believe he was responsible. (...)
Dr Swire described the US’s attempts to bring Megrahi to America and put him in prison as “vindictive” and questioned the validity of the move under international law.
He said: “What they want to do is take him [Megrahi] off to prison in America.
“But the US agreed that Megrahi should be tried under Scottish law and subject to its decisions. This would be the opposite of that.
“Effectively this would be an abduction of Megrahi because it would have no legal status. He is out on licence from a Scottish prison and if he is taken to America he would actually be in breach of that licence. So this is a complete legal mess.”
He added: “I am appalled by the idea. Megrahi should be left in peace to enjoy his last few weeks of life.”
The move by America to extradite Megrahi came after a senior minister in the new Libyan government said the bomber no longer enjoyed the VIP status he was granted by ousted president Muammar al-Gaddafi.
This means Libyans are willing to allow foreign governments to request his extradition, which would allow the bomber to face another trial – in America.
The US state department has said it intends to take advantage of this development.
A spokesman for the state department said it was ready to make a “formal approach” to Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC).
The new regime in Libya has made it clear it has no intention of protecting those who were close to Gaddafi.
NTC information minister Mahmoud Shamam said: “Basically, we don’t care what happens to him. He can live his life however he wants, provided there is no legal reason why he shouldn’t.
“For example, if the Scottish [or the US] want to get him back, they can apply through the courts and we would respect any such application.”
Last month, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US believes Megrahi should be returned to prison.
Meanwhile, the US Senate is also preparing to put pressure on Libya’s new government to launch a formal inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing. New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez said: “We know that Megrahi didn’t act alone, and I will continue to press the new government until all the facts are revealed and we can bring some sense of final closure to the hundreds of families who are still waiting.”
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Has United States asked Libyan NTC to extradite Megrahi?
A reputable Scottish journalist tells me that there is a report in today's edition of the Daily Mail to the effect that the United States has formally requested the Libyan National Transitional Council to extradite Abdelbaset Megrahi to the United States and that a NTC spokesman has responded that the present Libyan government has no interest in Megrahi and any state that wants him can have him. I cannot find this story on the Mail Online website, but many reports of primarily Scottish interest are never posted there.
If Libya had a normally-functioning government and judicial system any such extradtion request would be summarily rejected. Abdelbaset Megrahi has already stood trial for the crimes in respect of which a US Federal indictment was obtained in 1991. The international warrant for that trial was a United Nations Security Council Resolution (1192 of 27 August 1998) passed at the instigation of the United States and the United Kingdom following a joint letter of 24 August 1998 (S/1998/795) to the Secretary General. That Security Council resolution required all UN member states (including the US) to cooperate. In the trial that followed at Camp Zeist, United States government lawyers (Messrs Murtagh and Biehl) formed part of the Lord Advocate's prosecution team. For the United States to seek Megrahi's extradition to be tried in the United States for the same crimes would be a perversion of international legality. Moreover, no US Federal Court with any respect for the rule of law and sensitive to governmental abuse of process would accept jurisdiction to retry him in these circumstances. However, if the US Department of State wants something badly enough, questions of legality are likely to count for little.
As far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the government in London should be gravely concerned about this attempt by the United States to subvert the international juridical regime that was set up to resolve the Lockerbie affair; and the Scottish Government should be gravely concerned about a deliberate attempt by the United States to take action that would place Abdelbaset Megrahi, entirely against his will, in breach of the terms of the licence under which he was released from his Scottish prison.
[The report in question may have been in the Scottish edition of The Sun, not the Daily Mail.
A related news item in Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here. A short report appears in the Friday 4 November edition of The Herald.]
If Libya had a normally-functioning government and judicial system any such extradtion request would be summarily rejected. Abdelbaset Megrahi has already stood trial for the crimes in respect of which a US Federal indictment was obtained in 1991. The international warrant for that trial was a United Nations Security Council Resolution (1192 of 27 August 1998) passed at the instigation of the United States and the United Kingdom following a joint letter of 24 August 1998 (S/1998/795) to the Secretary General. That Security Council resolution required all UN member states (including the US) to cooperate. In the trial that followed at Camp Zeist, United States government lawyers (Messrs Murtagh and Biehl) formed part of the Lord Advocate's prosecution team. For the United States to seek Megrahi's extradition to be tried in the United States for the same crimes would be a perversion of international legality. Moreover, no US Federal Court with any respect for the rule of law and sensitive to governmental abuse of process would accept jurisdiction to retry him in these circumstances. However, if the US Department of State wants something badly enough, questions of legality are likely to count for little.
As far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the government in London should be gravely concerned about this attempt by the United States to subvert the international juridical regime that was set up to resolve the Lockerbie affair; and the Scottish Government should be gravely concerned about a deliberate attempt by the United States to take action that would place Abdelbaset Megrahi, entirely against his will, in breach of the terms of the licence under which he was released from his Scottish prison.
[The report in question may have been in the Scottish edition of The Sun, not the Daily Mail.
A related news item in Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm can be read here. A short report appears in the Friday 4 November edition of The Herald.]
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Questions remain about links with ex-spy chief
[This is the headline over a report (behind the paywall) in today's edition of The Times. It reads as follows:]
The revelation that Moussa Koussa met top British and US officials at a Cotswolds hotel in 2003 will fuel suspicions that the Government shielded the former Libyan spy chief from prosecution after he defected to Britain in March.
For three decades Mr Koussa was a member of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle. He was expelled from Britain in 1980 for ordering the assassination of regime opponents. He was suspected of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other terrorist atrocities. He was Libya’s spy chief for 15 years, and witnesses recently told the BBC’s Panorama that he was present when 1,200 inmates were massacred at Abu Salim prison, Tripoli, in 1996.
Since 2001, however, he was a key player in Libya’s rapprochement with the West, negotiating his country’s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction and providing intelligence on al-Qaeda.
On visits to Britain he met officials at places such as The Travellers Club in Pall Mall and, as The Times reveals today, the Bay Tree Hotel in Burford, where he negotiated with Sir Mark Allen, then head of counter-terrorism at MI6 and now an adviser to BP, and Steve Kappes, a CIA agent who resigned as deputy director last year.
The cosiness of the relationship was laid embarrassingly bare in letters found in Mr Koussa’s office after the fall of Tripoli in August. In one, Sir Mark trumpeted Britain’s cooperation in forcibly repatriating a regime opponent, saying that was “the least we could do for you”.
When Mr Koussa fled Libya on March 30 he was flown in a private plane to Farnborough Airport and taken to a safe house.
David Cameron and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, both denied that he had been granted immunity from prosecution, and he was questioned by Lockerbie investigators. But within days the EU unfroze his assets at Britain’s request and he left for Qatar. He has lived in the Four Seasons Hotel, Qatar, ever since.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office insists there were no grounds for detaining him. But officials also accept that prosecuting Mr Koussa would have deterred other defections, and silenced a priceless source of inside information about Gaddafi’s regime.“I can’t say there was a deal, but it was very convenient for the Government that Moussa Koussa moved to Qatar,” Guma el-Gamaty, the former coordinator of Libya’s National Transitional Council in Britain, said. “If he’d stayed any longer the Lockerbie investigators were coming in to demand he should be investigated.”
The revelation that Moussa Koussa met top British and US officials at a Cotswolds hotel in 2003 will fuel suspicions that the Government shielded the former Libyan spy chief from prosecution after he defected to Britain in March.
For three decades Mr Koussa was a member of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle. He was expelled from Britain in 1980 for ordering the assassination of regime opponents. He was suspected of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other terrorist atrocities. He was Libya’s spy chief for 15 years, and witnesses recently told the BBC’s Panorama that he was present when 1,200 inmates were massacred at Abu Salim prison, Tripoli, in 1996.
Since 2001, however, he was a key player in Libya’s rapprochement with the West, negotiating his country’s abandonment of weapons of mass destruction and providing intelligence on al-Qaeda.
On visits to Britain he met officials at places such as The Travellers Club in Pall Mall and, as The Times reveals today, the Bay Tree Hotel in Burford, where he negotiated with Sir Mark Allen, then head of counter-terrorism at MI6 and now an adviser to BP, and Steve Kappes, a CIA agent who resigned as deputy director last year.
The cosiness of the relationship was laid embarrassingly bare in letters found in Mr Koussa’s office after the fall of Tripoli in August. In one, Sir Mark trumpeted Britain’s cooperation in forcibly repatriating a regime opponent, saying that was “the least we could do for you”.
When Mr Koussa fled Libya on March 30 he was flown in a private plane to Farnborough Airport and taken to a safe house.
David Cameron and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, both denied that he had been granted immunity from prosecution, and he was questioned by Lockerbie investigators. But within days the EU unfroze his assets at Britain’s request and he left for Qatar. He has lived in the Four Seasons Hotel, Qatar, ever since.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office insists there were no grounds for detaining him. But officials also accept that prosecuting Mr Koussa would have deterred other defections, and silenced a priceless source of inside information about Gaddafi’s regime.“I can’t say there was a deal, but it was very convenient for the Government that Moussa Koussa moved to Qatar,” Guma el-Gamaty, the former coordinator of Libya’s National Transitional Council in Britain, said. “If he’d stayed any longer the Lockerbie investigators were coming in to demand he should be investigated.”
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Justice for Megrahi petition on agenda of Scottish Parliament Justice Committee
On 28 June 2011, the Scottish Parliament's Public Petitions Committee referred to the Parliament's Justice Committee the Justice for Megrahi petition (PE 1370) calling on the Scottish Government to institute an independent inquiry into Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction. The petition will be one of the items on the Justice Committee's agenda at its meeting on 8 November 2011 at 10am. It is anticipated that the committee discussion will be limited to deciding what action to take on the petition (eg whether to call for evidence and, if so, from whom and in what form -- oral or written).
Friday, 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. The UN’s special representative to Libya, Ian Martin, has instructed his staff to look into the claim.
“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.”
The militiaman in charge of the hospital on Thursday confirmed Dorda was injured but refused to allow a reporter to interview him. The militiaman, Sadiq Turki, gave varying accounts of how Dorda was injured, first saying he had tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a second-story window, then saying the former official had been trying to escape his detention facility.
“He’s the one who gave orders to kill and rape in Tripoli,” Turki told a reporter at the Mitiga military hospital. He declined to allow a reporter to talk to Dorda, saying, “This is confidential.” (...)
[Surgeon, Faraj] Al-Farjani and another doctor, Yahia Moussa, said Dorda’s wounds weren’t life-threatening but were serious for a 71-year-old man. The doctors said they hadn’t been able to question Dorda about how he was injured. (...)
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.]
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Bill on secret document’s publication is ‘a waste of time’
[This is the headline over a report by Lucy Adams published this evening on the HeraldScotland website. It reads as follows:]
Legal experts have warned that the
Bill currently going through Holyrood to allow for the release of a
secret document about the Lockerbie case is a waste of time and
taxpayers’ money.
The
unpublished 800-page report from the Scottish Criminal Cases Review
Commission (SCCRC) explains the six reasons why the man convicted of the
Lockerbie bombing should be referred back to court for a fresh appeal.
Ministers
pushed for the new Bill and have said consistently they want to see the
document put in the public domain, but the reality is that it requires
an exemption under the Data Protection Act, which can only be granted by
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
Despite
starting the process to allow the SCCRC to publish in 2009, the Scottish
Government has still not officially asked Mr Clarke for the exemption.
The issue has been raised in informal talks only.
Gerard
Sinclair, the Commission’s chief executive, said: “As I previously
indicated the Commission is willing, in principle, to publish this
document, the content of which has been the subject of a great deal of
public and media speculation and debate.
“I
believe, however, that legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament
cannot, by itself, guarantee publication of this document, as both the
Scottish Parliament and the Commission must act at all times in
compliance with their respective obligations under the Human Rights Act.
“In addition, the Commission would
also still require to act lawfully and comply with the requirement of
the Data Protection Act 1998 which is of course UK-wide legislation.”
Scottish officials claim the Bill currently going through the Justice
Committee is important because it will remove the current obstacle of
where a party objects to publication.
Robert
Black QC said: “They did not have to do it this way. It looks like they
either had bad legal advice or they knew perfectly well what the end
result would be. Why they would want to waste the Scottish Parliament’s
time with this is an interesting question.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said it had received no official request from ministers.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “It is precisely because we
believe that the SCCRC Statement of Reasons should be in the public
domain that we are introducing a Bill later this year to enable
publication, and the Bill is necessary in order to overcome objections
by interested parties preventing any publication.”
Priest says Gaddafi’s death makes no difference to truth on Lockerbie
[This is the headline over an article published today on the website of the Scottish Catholic Observer. It reads as follows:]
Canon Patrick Keegans says killing of former Libyan leader has no bearing on whether truth will emerge
The Ayrshire priest who survived the Lockerbie bombing, then helped the community recover, believes the death of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s death will ‘not affect’ whether the truth about the disaster emerges.
Canon Patrick Keegans, 65, and now the administrator of St Margaret’s cathedral in Ayr, knew the 11 people killed in his street debris from the Boeing 747 crashed into Sherwood Crescent on December 21 1988. His home was one of the few that remained standing.
In the weeks after the tragedy, he helped the town come to terms with what had happened, and later campaigned against the conviction of Libyan bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi. Speaking after the former Libya dictator was killed in the Libyan town of Sirte last week, Fr Keegan’s said he doubted the dictators death would make a any real difference as though Gaddafi ‘may have been able to shed further light on PanAm 103’ his death ‘will not affect the full truth emerging’.’
“Already through the Scottish Cases Criminal Review Commission the world knows about the severe misgivings about the evidence presented at the trial of Magrahi and the belief that the verdict is unsound,” he said. “This is supported by the efforts and findings of investigative journalists and backed by respected intellectuals and judicial figures throughout the world. The US on the other hand never makes any reference to these findings and shuts its eyes and ears to the truth. So in the long run the death of Gadaffi makes no difference to the truth about PanAm 103.”
Canon Keegans still hopes that the truth about the disaster will one day emerge.
“We would like the truth, even though Gaddafi has died,” he said. “It is very convenient for some governments because they clearly had connections with him that were rather suspect. I am talking about the British Government and the US Government.”
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Mr Megrahi, 59, has not been sighted in recent days with many claiming his life could be in danger because of his connections to Gaddafi. He was released from Greenock Prison on compassionate grounds more than two years ago because it was said he had less than three months to live with prostate cancer. On a news channel last month, he insisted that he had nothing to do with Lockerbie, adding: ‘The facts will become clear one day, hopefully in the near future.’
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