Justice for Megrahi submits evidence on SCCRC disclosure Bill

On 7 December 2011, the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee issued a call for evidence on the Criminal Cases (Punishment and Review) (Scotland) Bill. The campaign group Justice for Megrahi has now submitted written evidence on Part 2 of the Bill, which purports to set out a framework for disclosure of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's reasons (and evidence) for concluding that Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice.  JFM's submission will be reproduced on this blog once it has been published on the Justice Committee's website.  Representatives of JFM are likely to give oral evidence to the committee at a session on 7 February 2012.

Lockerbie father: al-Megrahi is innocent

[This is the headline over a report (behind the paywall) in today’s edition of The Times. It reads as follows:]

The doctor who lost his daughter in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has reaffirmed his belief that the Libyan man convicted of the attack is innocent.

Jim Swire said he was convinced that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice, despite the belief of the new Libyan governement that al-Megrahi is guilty of the mass murder of the 270 passengers.

Dr Swire was speaking last night after an ITV documentary in which he was shown visiting al-Megrahi, who is dying of cancer. He also consulted representatives of the Libyan leadership that toppled the dictatorship of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi last year.

In one exchange Ashour Shamis, an adviser to Abdurrahim al-Keib, the Libyan Prime Minister, told Dr Swire: “As far as the Libyans are concerned, the Gaddafi regime, Gaddafi personally, are involved in planning and executing the atrocity. There is no doubt about it. They are involved, the regime are involved.”

Mr Shamis added that al-Megrahi was involved in the bombing, if “only a small player”. He went on: “Megrahi is an employee of Libyan security there is no doubt about it — of Libyan security. And if he was told to do something, he would have done it.”

Dr Swire said he had not accepted that argument. Mr Shamis, along with the rest of new government, had simply not had time to consider the case with any thoroughness.

“I found Tripoli percolated with the desire to pin everything imaginable under the sun on the defunct Gaddafi regime, because the people are so delighted to have got rid of him,” said Dr Swire. “Mr Shamis certainly believes al-Megrahi was guilty. I tried to make plain that if you look at the evidence that it is not at all likely.”

Dr Swire added that he hoped the documentary would re-awaken interest in al-Megrahi’s conviction, in a Scottish court at Camp Zeist, in the Netherlands, in 2001. The Libyan was released from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 because he is suffering from terminal cancer.

“The verdict is vulnerable and would be repealed if there were a full inquiry into it,” said Dr Swire. “The Scottish public should understand what’s going on in their name: the support of an unsupportable verdict.”

A petition calling for a review of the al-Megrahi case has been lodged with Holyrood’s Justice Committee and will be debated in the Scottish Parliament next month.


[It is not the petition (PE 1370) that the Justice Committee will be considering next month but Justice for Megrahi's evidence on Part 2 of the Criminal Cases (Punishment and Review) (Scotland) Bill, which purports to set a legal framework for disclosure of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission's reasons for concluding that Megrahi's conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice. The evidence session in question is provisionally scheduled for 7 February 2012.]

My trip to bid dying bomber goodbye

[This is the headline over a report published today in the Scottish edition of The Sun.  It is the only article that I have so far been able to find following last night's STV and ITV1 documentary Did Gaddafi kill my daughter?  It reads in part:]

A dad who lost his daughter in the Lockerbie bombing has travelled to Libya to "say goodbye" to the man convicted of the atrocity.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 23, was among 270 people killed in the 1988 terror attack, said Abdelbaset al-Megrahi "does not have much time left".

Megrahi, 59, was freed on compassionate grounds from Greenock jail in August 2009, after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

Dr Swire — who said he was "entirely satisfied" that Megrahi was not guilty — revealed he had spent just over a week in Tripoli. The 75-year-old, who lives in Gloucestershire, said: "It was very much a trip for me to say goodbye to him.

"It may seem unusual but I have come to regard him as a friend."

A deathbed farewell to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi

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

Even without the events of December 21, 1988, they would be the most unlikely of friends. Jim Swire, an Eton and Cambridge-educated doctor from Bromsgrove, and Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a former member of the Libyan security services who was convicted of murdering 270 people when a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew over Lockerbie. Swire’s daughter, Flora, was one of the passengers. She would have turned 24 the next day.

Last month, Flora’s father travelled to Tripoli for a meeting with the terminally ill Megrahi, who was released from a Scottish prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds. It was a remarkable journey for a 75-year-old man to make, not least because Swire undertook it in order to bid farewell to the man he now describes as his friend.

The pair have met on a number of occasions – once in prison in Scotland and twice in Libya – but Swire is sure their encounter in December was their last. “It was, a privilege to be allowed, essentially, to say goodbye to him,” Swire told an ITV camera crew who filmed part of his visit to Libya. He tells me he is “proud” to have known the man he calls Basset, the man so many others know as the Lockerbie bomber. “Megrahi is dying, and as a doctor I wanted to find out whether he has got the necessary painkillers.” He has, but Swire cannot say how long the convicted terrorist might live. “He is a very sick man. He only talks in short sentences with pauses to get his breath back. He is looking death in the face, and he knows it.”


Swire speaks affectionately of the Libyan’s wife, Aisha, always by her husband’s side, holding his hand; he is almost jovial when speaking about Megrahi’s love of football. “I think that was the thing that endeared him to the other prisoners. He was popular prisoner and, although he lived a different sort of life from his fellow inmates, he did muck in with them.”


At the end of his meeting Swire, a Christian, was so moved he found one of only two churches in Tripoli, where he prayed for Megrahi.

Such gentle compassion for the man convicted of murdering his daughter is incredible, and Swire is aware that many might find it astonishing. But the simple fact of the matter in this most complex of cases is this: Swire does not believe Megrahi is guilty. Indeed, if anyone feels guilt then it is Swire himself, who once met Gaddafi to pressure the late Libyan leader into handing over Megrahi to stand trial. (...)

Swire does not seem to have the same sense of mercy towards Gaddafi, who went to his grave with his secrets. “I am totally satisfied, that he [Megrahi] had nothing to do with it. But that is very different to saying that Gaddafi had nothing to do with it.”

It was during the 2001 trial that Swire started to doubt Megrahi’s guilt. While Libya and Syria may have been involved, he believes Iran was ultimately responsible for Lockerbie, as revenge for the shooting down of an Iranair flight by the Americans.

It was in the early hours of Flora’s 24th birthday that the Swires received a phone call confirming their daughter was dead. “It never occurred to me that I would be trying to get justice for Flora 23 years later. I thought there would be an international investigation and the truth would come out in a year or two,” Swire says. He has lobbied five Prime Ministers for a public inquiry, all of whom seem to have fobbed the families off; and at least two of whom, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, were pictured cosying up to Gaddafi.

The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission found in 2007 the Lockerbie verdict may have been a miscarriage of justice; Swire still hopes for a proper inquiry.

Libya claims Megrahi had role in Lockerbie bombing

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

The new Libyan Government has admitted for the first time that Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was involved in the Lockerbie bombing, which claimed the lives of 270 people.

Ashour Shamis, adviser to the country's Prime Minister Abdurrahim al Keib, scotched the theory the only man convicted of the atrocity was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Shamis claimed that, as a security adviser to Colonel Gaddafi, Megrahi would have had a part to play.

While the new Government in Libya has maintained Gaddafi executed the terror attack, it has never before pinpointed the involvement of Megrahi.

Mr Shamis made the admission to Dr Jim Swire during a trip to Tripoli which was filmed for a documentary to be screened tonight on STV.

Dr Swire, 75 – whose daughter Flora died in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 – has long believed in the convicted bomber's innocence and he told filmmakers of the guilt he feels for pressing Libya to hand Megrahi over to stand trial.

He went to Libya to continue his search for the full truth behind Lockerbie and to say goodbye to Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

As his fact-finding mission unfolded in Tripoli, he met Mr Shamis after being granted an interview with the Government.

Mr Shamis said: "As far as the Libyans are concerned, the Gaddafi regime, Gaddafi personally, are involved in planning and executing this atrocity.

"There is no doubt about it They are involved. The regime are involved."

He said Gaddafi's payment of compensation to victims was proof the despot, who was killed in the rebel uprising in October, was behind the terror attack.

Backers of Gaddafi have always maintained the money was paid to force the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya.

Crucially, Mr Shamis added that Megrahi was involved in the bombing even if "he was only a small player". He said: "Megrahi is an employee of Libyan security, there is no doubt about it – of external security. And if he was told to do something he would have done it." (...)

In the documentary, Dr Swire elaborated on the guilt he feels over Megrahi's time in prison, describing him as a "decent guy". Dr Swire said: "I feel a sense of guilt about Megrahi ever being found guilty because maybe, just maybe, if I hadn't tried as far as I did, maybe Gaddafi wouldn't have handed him over because it was Gaddafi that I addressed my pleas to – to allow him to be handed over.

"So I feel guilt towards Megrahi, he is a decent guy and many other people who have met him said the same sort of thing.

"I doubt now, that he was a member of Libyan intelligence at all and I don't think he knows who in the Libyan regime knew what was going on.

"That of course brings us to the question of how much did the Libyan regime know and what can we find out."

Dr Swire visited Megrahi during his recent trip but camera crews were banned during the meeting. He was described as "distraught" following the pair's hour-long encounter.

Dr Swire said: "I think that what happened - in the sick room of a dying man and his doctor has to remain private.

"He is a very sick man and I thought it was a privilege to have been allowed essentially to say goodbye to him."

Dr Swire, who had met Megrahi previously, added: "This is a different and deeper level than we have been at before ... this was a parting discussion between two people who know each other, one of whom is going to die in the very near future."

Tonight: Did Gaddafi Kill My Daughter? STV at 7.30pm.

[Megrahi "would have had a part to play"; "he was only a small player"; "if he was told to do something he would have done it".  This does not amount to an admission by Mr Shamis that Megrahi was the person who placed, or arranged for the placing of, a bomb on Pan Am 103 (which is what he was accused and convicted of), far less evidence of such involvement.  It sounds like a brazen attempt by the NTC to incriminate (i) the regime which they supplanted and (ii) an official of that regime (Megrahi was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines and later director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli).


A useful commentary can be found here on bensix's blog Back Towards The Locus.]

Documentary - Dr Jim Swire visits Al-Megrahi

[This is the headline over a report published yesterday evening on the Newsnet Scotland website.  It reads as follows:]

On Thursday 19th January at 7.30pm ITV1 and STV are due to broadcast a programme about a visit by Dr Jim Swire to Libya in December 2011.

During this visit Mr Swire met with Abdel Baset al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, and also a number of key figures in the Libyan Interim Government.

At present the group called Justice for Megrahi (JFM), of which Mr Swire is a member, have a petition before the Holyrood Justice Committee, and also the SNP Government are currently taking steps which may make the findings of the SCCRC on Lockerbie more publicly available.

The conviction of Mr Megrahi has been the subject of debate and doubt ever since he was convicted.  This escalated in August 2009 when the Libyan was released on compassionate grounds by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.

Many people believe that Mr Megrahi was wrongfully convicted.  The imminent publication of John Ashton's biography of Megrahi is expected to reveal the evidence that led the SCCRC to conclude that a miscarriage of justice may have taken place.

[The readers' comments which follow the article are also worth attention.

For those outside the United Kingdom who wish to watch the programme after broadcast on the ITV player, I am told that this is possible via a UK-based proxy server, such as this. Others can be found by googling "UK proxy server".]

London's Imperial War Museum to exhibit Lockerbie trial witness box

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

The witness box from the Lockerbie bombing trial has been bought by the Imperial War Museum.

They are putting it on show in London in 2014 as part of an overhaul of exhibits.

Bomber Abdulbaset al-Megrahi listened to months of testimony from witnesses in the box at his trial in Camp Zeist, Holland.

A Scottish court was set up there in 2000 so he could be tried on neutral ground.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died when Pan Am 103 came down in 1988, said: “One has to question whether the box itself bore witness to the truth of the Lockerbie events or to something else entirely.

“In any event, there was an exhibit in Glasgow’s Museum of Transport for some years where one might have thought any additional items may be selected for display.

“One also has to ask what war this artefact is supposed to be associated with.” 

The IWM defended the decision to snap up the box, saying their remit is “to cover conflicts from 1914 to the present day – this includes acts of terrorism”.

[This story was broken on 13 January by Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm. Its article, with longer quotes from the IWM and Dr Swire, can be read here.]

Did Gaddafi kill my daughter?

[This is the title of a programme to be broadcast in the UK on ITV 1 on Thursday 19 January at 7.30pm. The description on the ITV TV Guide website reads as follows:]

75-year-old Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the Lockerbie bombing, travels to war-torn Libya to investigate whether Colonel Gaddafi was behind the atrocity. He meets the only man convicted of the attack, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, and confronts the new administration in his search for answers.

[It is indicated that there will be at least three repeats.]

Service announcement

For the next six months, posts to this blog will be from South Africa.  My home base there is very remote and internet connection can be problematical.  It is therefore likely that updating will be less frequent and immediate; and that the moderation of comments that I have been driven to institute may be regrettably slow.

Brown claims Lockerbie victory

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Independent on Sunday. It reads as follows:]

Gordon Brown has claimed victory in his battle to persuade Britain's top civil servant that he did not help to secure the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Sir Gus O'Donnell, who last month retired as Cabinet Secretary after six years, had suggested the last Labour government did "all it could" to to "facilitate" the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. But in an angry exchange of letters, Mr Brown insisted he knew nothing of the plan.

In a final letter, on 21 December, Sir Gus wrote to Mr Brown: "Given your recollection that you, as Prime Minister, did not know of such a policy of facilitation, it is right for me to be clear that I have found nothing in the record to contradict this."

The former PM has welcomed the statement and insisted: "I knew nothing, nor did I initiate or support any attempt to facilitate the Megrahi release."

Sound familiar?

[The first leader (behind the paywall) in today's edition of The Times is headlined "Justice and Answers". It is about the case of Eddie Gilfoyle. The leader reads in part:]

The story of Mrs Gilfoyle’s locked box is thus now a central part of the story of a man’s liberty, of the probity and competence of the police, and of the integrity of the justice system. It could hardly be more important. What happened to that box may be a mystery today, but it cannot possibly be allowed to remain one.

The box joins other critical evidence that was withheld from the defence at moments when it could have made a real difference. (...) There are serious questions about whether flaws in the case against Mr Gilfoyle have been deliberately protected from exposure.

These questions must be asked at a ministerial level and made subject to an urgent new inquiry. Mr Gilfoyle has been released on licence from his prison sentence having served so many years, but his conviction remains. Every day that it continues to do so without inquiry and examination is an affront to justice.  (...)

It is time for some answers and some justice.

[Messrs Salmond, MacAskill, Mulholland and all Members of the Scottish Parliament should read, mark and inwardly digest. And then, without further prevarication, the Scottish Government should institute an independent inquiry into the Megrahi conviction.]

Blown gasket

My computer here in Scotland has blown a gasket. It is unlikely that I shall be able to service this blog until 12 January at the earliest, when I shall be back in South Africa and have access to my computer there.

Situation normal ...

[I wish a happy and peaceful 2012 to all readers of this blog. What follows is an item first posted here on 1 January 2008:]

In The Scotsman today, Iain McKie (former police officer and father of Shirley) has an op-ed piece expressing grave concern about criminal justice in the United Kingdom, with particular reference to forensic scientific evidence. He writes:

“The Omagh bombing, the World's End Murders, the Templeton Woods murder and the SCRO fingerprint case have all shown that previously infallible evidence is indeed fallible and finally the prosecution system is being forced to review its whole forensic strategy.

While this is bad enough, Lockerbie and other cases have also revealed evidence of police and Crown Office incompetence, political intrigue and a court and legal system struggling to cope.

A system where justice takes forever and at a prohibitive cost. Slowly the realisation is dawning that we are faced with a justice system no longer fit for purpose. A system where there is very real danger of the innocent being found guilty and the guilty escaping punishment. Instead of the usual face saving 'first aid' aimed at preserving the power and privilege of those within the system, the time is long overdue for broad ranging public and political debate aimed at creating an open, accountable and accessible system.”

See http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/opinion/Alternative-take.3631585.jp

Scottish police trying to prevent publication of SCCRC report

[This is the headline over an item published today on the Lockerbie Truth website of Dr Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph. It reads as follows:]

One of the important features of the Lockerbie case is that a three year investigation (2004-2007) by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission proved that a miscarriage of justice occurred.   The SCCRC discovered that the two principal identification  witnesses (the CIA's Majid Giaka and Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci) were secretly paid huge amounts, each receiving $2m for their evidence. The police concealed these payments from the judges and defence. 

Even as this webpage is being updated, the Scottish police are trying to hide this fact from public scrutiny.  In a briefing note unearthed by the SCCRC inquiry, on 15th May 2007 DI Dalgliesh advised his colleagues "The SCCRC's statement of reasons is likely to question the integrity of Gauci's evidence ... there is a real danger that if the SCCRC's statement is leaked to the media, Gauci could be portrayed as having given flawed evidence for financial reward..."

So now we know why desperate attempts are being made behind the scenes to prevent publication, using the specious excuses of "protect our human rights, protect our personal data etc etc".  

Only an inquiry by an independent senior judge can restore confidence in a legal system today widely regarded as untrustworthy and tainted.  

The two key elements of the conviction of al-Megrahi are:

1. The identification of Al-Megrahi: In an extraordinary development in 2005, Maltese shopkeeper Toni Gauci was exposed as an unreliable witness by the man who in 1991 indicted Megrahi, former Scottish Lord Advocate Peter Fraser.  In Fraser's words, Gauci was "an apple short of a picnic."  The judges had trusted Gauci's confused evidence, unaware of the existence of several other contradictory statements kept secret by the police.  The police also failed to reveal that another witness had proof that Al-Megrahi was not the culprit. The police also kept secret the US offers of unlimited rewards to Gauci if Al-Megrahi was convicted.  It is now proven that Gauci received $2 million and his brother Paul $1 million.

2. A fragment of a printed circuit board:  Found by Dr Thomas Hayes, its label had been altered by unknown persons' and the entry concerning that finding  in Hayes' notebook remains to this day highly suspicious.

To re-establish the reputation of Scottish justice it is imperative that an independent inquiry take place into the undisclosed evidence and its effect upon the course of the trial. 

Will Abdelbaset al-Megrahi die before Saif al-Islam takes the stand?

[This is the headline over an item published today on the Anorak website.  It reads in part:]

Will Abdelbaset al-Megrahi die before Saif al-Islam takes the stand?

Human Rights Watch says Colonel Gaddafi’s son is being held in solitary confinement in Zintan, in the Nafusa Mountains of western Libya. He has no access to lawyers. Saif al-Islam has had the ends of his right-hand forefinger and thumb amputated – they became infected after being damaged in a Nato air strike.

Saif al-Islam faces two trials on corruption and war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court. (...)

Al-Megrahi denies being a killer.  The headline in The Times quotes him: “These are my last words: I am innocent”. (...)

If not al-Megrahi, who? The NY Daily News tosses up names:

"Last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met with Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, to start a new investigation into who, exactly, brought down the jetliner.

"Part of the reason a new probe could bear fruit is that the fall of Moammar Khadafy’s regime has suddenly made former Libyan government functionaries more willing to speak honestly about his policy of state-sponsored terrorism — perhaps for no other reason than to settle old scores.

"That’s all well and good, as long as they tell the truth about Lockerbie.

"Among the potential witnesses are former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil and former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who may finally be eager to talk about what role their government played in the attack — and who else was involved.

"One obvious candidate is Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, who stood trial with Megrahi but was acquitted. Also suspected are Khafady’s brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi, who then led Libya’s intelligence services, and Ibrahim Nayili, former head of airline security."

Names and lies and money. Who now speaks for the 270?