Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi: My story

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Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi: My story

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Abdelbaset al-Megrahi papers claim U.S. paid key Lockerbie witness

October 2, 2009 -- The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing released evidence today claiming to show that a key witness at his trial received payments from the U.S. after giving evidence. The claim is made in documents published online by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in support of his attempt to clear his name of involvement in the worst terrorist attack on British soil. It refers to concerns raised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) about the safety of Megrahi's conviction for killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. The documents would have formed part of an appeal, which Megrahi, who is terminally ill, agreed to drop in return for his release on compassionate grounds.

The commission found police memos suggesting that Tony Gauci, the only witness to link the Libyan to the alleged plot, expressed an interest in being paid to give evidence. He also received payments from the U.S. Department of Justice after the trial, the new documents claim to show. The commission said the documents should have been disclosed to Megrahi's defence team, and that the failure to do so made Megrahi's conviction unsafe. The papers allege that Gauci was paid $2 million (£1.2 million) after Megrahi's conviction, and his brother Paul $1 million.

In one of the memos released by Megrahi, police officers discussed the issue of payments that they said were made under the U.S. "Awards of Justice" scheme. The memo warns of that Gauci "could be portrayed [by the media] as having given flawed evidence for financial reward," if the commission's concerns were disclosed. In a statement Megrahi continued to protest his innocence. He said: "In releasing this information I have no desire to add to the upset of many people I know are profoundly affected by what happened in Lockerbie. My intention is only for the truth to be made known."

The new documents, published on a website set up for the purpose, constitute the convicted bomber's attempt to prove his innocence after his controversial release from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds in August. Megrahi is in the terminal stages of prostate cancer, and Scottish ministers believe he has less than three months to live. Last month Megrahi released 298 pages of legal papers, which appeared to suggest the commission regarded Gauci's evidence as "unreasonable". The crucial mistake, the SCCRC said, was believing prosecution claims that Megrahi had bought clothes at Gauci's shop on 7 December 1988, allegedly later found in the suitcase used for the bomb. This evidence was "unreasonable", the SCCRC said, and was alone grounds for belief that Megrahi was wrongly convicted.

It was the commission that referred Megrahi's case back to the courts for its second appeal. The new dossier presents what is said to be fresh and undisclosed evidence, suggesting that the clothes found in the suitcase were not purchased on 7 December 1988 as was was argued during the trial. Gauci told the court that Megrahi bought the clothes before the Christmas lights were illuminated. Evidence from the diary of Michael Refalo, then Malta's tourism minister, stated that he switched on the Christmas lights on December 6. That evidence was not available at the time of the trial. The new 180 page dossier also claims there was potentially another independent witness who saw other Libyans, not Megrahi, purchasing the clothes. The witness said he overheard Gauci referring to the men as "Libyan pigs" which Megrahi's lawyers claimed showed he was "hostile" to Libya.

A spokesman for the Scottish government said the justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, made his decision to free Megrahi "based on the due process of Scots Law" and he "supports the conviction". He added: "The Scottish government has already released as much relevant information as possible, and have met with the SCCRC to look at what documentation relating to the appeal could be released by them."

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Police relaunch Lockerbie bombing investigation

October 24, 2009 -- Detectives have relaunched the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing and are pursuing "several" new lines of inquiry including a fresh analysis of forensic evidence, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Authorities secretly ordered the re-examination of all evidence following the decision by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop his appeal against his conviction for mass murder. The disclosure comes as the relatives of British victims of the terrorist attack launch a campaign today – backed by The Sunday Telegraph – for an independent public inquiry into who ordered and carried out the bombing. Families have sent a letter to Gordon Brown demanding the Government holds an inquiry into the bombing, in which 270 people were murdered, following the death of Megrahi, the only man ever convicted of the atrocity. Megrahi had abandoned his appeal as part of an apparent deal that saw him sent home to Libya to die.

The Sunday Telegraph has seen the email sent by the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecuting authority, to British relatives of victims informing them of the new investigation, which includes a review of forensic evidence. In the email, Lindsey Miller, a senior Procurator Fiscal who was involved in preparing evidence for Megrahi's trial, wrote: "Throughout the investigation we have, at various times, taken stock of the evidence as a whole with a view to identifying further lines of inquiry that can be pursued. Now that the appeal proceedings are at an end a further review of the case is under way and several potential lines of inquiry, both through a 'desktop' (paper) exercise and consultation with forensic science colleagues are being considered. You will of course appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to elaborate on these lines but please be assured that this is not simply paying lip service to the idea of an 'open case'." The investigation is understood to be headed by Detective Chief Inspector Michael Dalgleish, a senior officer who was part of the original team that brought the case against Megrahi. Four detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police, which covers the Lockerbie area, are working full-time on the case. Megrahi, 57, a former Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted of mass murder in 2001 after a specially convened trial in The Hague although he has always denied any involvement in the 1988 bombing. But his decision to drop his appeal left British families, many of whom are sceptical about his guilt, fearing that new information that should have been made public will now remain secret.

The decision by police to submit the bombing to what is effectively a 'cold case' review has been welcomed by families in search of the truth about what happened when Pan Am flight 103 exploded 40 minutes after take-off above Lockerbie. Pam Dix, whose brother Peter died in the explosion, said last night: "This new investigation gives us new hope. It has to be right that police don't see this as concluded. Even if Megrahi was guilty, he could not possibly have carried out the bombing unaided and if he is not guilty then not a single one of the conspirators of the Lockerie bombing have been brought to justice. This email implies they are looking at all the forensics again and that has to be a good thing. Police have always said the case is open and not closed as such but they have never said they are looking at all the evidence afresh." One possible area for review is a break-in at Heathrow 17 hours before Flight 103 took off from the airport heading for New York. Evidence from a Heathrow security guard was suppressed, say families, for 12 years and did not feature at Megrahi's trial.

Critics of Megrahi's conviction – including Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on the plane – believe Libya and its ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi were framed in a US-led conspiracy. They suggest that the group most likely to have carried out the bombing was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC). In 1988 the group was under the control of Ahmed Jibril, a former captain in the Syrian army, who was based in Damascus and funded by Iran. Five months before the Lockerbie bombing in July 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was accidentally shot down by the USS Vincennes with the loss of 290 lives. The Lockerbie bombing may have been in revenge for that attack, which Iran has never accepted was a mistake. Other possible suspects include Abu Taib, a Palestinian later arrested and jailed in Sweden for terrorist bombings, who had circled the date of the Lockerbie bombing December 21 1988 in a calendar found in his flat.

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Lockerbie: Megrahi release details could be published

December 21, 2009 -- A body that investigates alleged miscarriages of justice has been given permission to release details of the case of the Lockerbie bomber, it was announced today. But it will be for the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to decide what – if anything – to release, said the Scottish government. The move came on the 21st anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing outrage, and at a time when the Libyan convicted of it, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, is reported to be in worsening health.

A £1.1 million investigation by the SCCRC led to a finding in June 2007 of six grounds – some put forward by the defence, others as a result of its own investigations – where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred. This decision opened the door to Megrahi's second appeal against his conviction. He dropped this appeal shortly before Scotland's justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, granted an application for his release from jail on compassionate grounds on 20 August this year.

The commission said that Scottish ministers had made an order that would come into effect on 10 February, entitling it to disclose "to any members of the public" information obtained during its investigations. George Sinclair, the commission's chief executive, said the order allowed disclosure only with the consent of those who had provided the information. He added: "In considering whether it is entitled to disclose information, the commission will also have to have regard to other relevant matters, including ECHR [the European convention on human rights] and data protection legislation and all other relevant law." MacAskill said: "The Scottish government has always been clear that as much information as possible in this case is published where relevant and, where appropriate, consents are given. The order laid today allows the SCCRC to disclose information it holds and it is now for them to decide what, if anything, they release."

The anniversary of the atrocity that claimed the lives of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town comes as reports from Tripoli yesterday said Megrahi's prostate cancer had spread and the health of the 57-year-old was worsening. Jim Swire, the father of one of the British victims, said he understood Megrahi may have a "few weeks" left to live. A report issued by the Tripoli Medical Centre yesterday is said to have detailed the bomber's ailing health. Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing, said: "I've been talking to people who know about his medical condition and the message I get is he's likely to only have a few weeks left. I think it's another occasion where we should be grateful for Kenny MacAskill's bold decision to allow him to go home."

Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder following a trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001. He abandoned the second appeal against the conviction ahead of his release, and many of the victims' families are still fighting for further light to be shed on the circumstances surrounding the bombing. Another Lockerbie relative, Pamela Dix, told how the reports of Megrahi's worsening condition added to the continuing ordeal of relatives still seeking answers. Dix, whose brother Peter was among the dead, said: "It really builds the extreme sense of frustration that this whole year has brought. The lack of resolution around the criminal aspect of Lockerbie is almost now complete." She told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "With Megrahi's death we will never know whether if he is truly innocent as he protests and as the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Board considered he might be, or guilty as a Scottish court convicted him." And she said: "I just find it immensely frustrating to have to sit here in the middle and not know."

Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, welcomed the SCCRC's move. He said: "At every stage since the terrible events of 21 December 1988, under successive administrations, all of the Scottish authorities and agencies involved have done their utmost to discharge their responsibilities properly and correctly, involving sustained and meticulous efforts solely in the interests of justice. We have always been entirely positive about having as much information as possible in the public domain."

Richard Baker, Scottish Labour's justice spokesman, repeated his criticism of the decision to release Megrahi. "He is the worst murderer in Scottish history who was flown back to Tripoli to be hailed as a hero," said Baker. "The decision to return him was as flawed as the medical advice that Mr MacAskill relied on as his reasoning behind the release. The whole process was deeply flawed and has turned into a huge embarrassment for Scotland." Robert Brown, his Lib Dem opposite number, said his party had been calling for months for information to be released. "This decision is great news for the victims' families who long felt they would never know the full story of Pan Am 103," he said. "The information must, however, be released sensibly and responsibly. If possible, a way must be found whereby the information held by the SCCRC, and the issues raised by them for the appeal court, can be properly and judicially tested."

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