Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LOCKERBIE CONFESSION
Terrorist admitted to family his Iran-backed group planted bomb on jet.. not the Libyans
IRAN paid a Palestinian terror group to carry out the Lockerbie bombing, it is claimed.
Member Marwan Khreesat allegedly told relatives boss Ahmed Jibril led the 1988 plot. Daughter Saha said: “He has a deal with Iran.”
FOR 17 years Libyan Abdelbaset al-megrahi has been blamed for the Lockerbie bombing, despite grave doubts over his involvement.
But the Mirror today reveals fresh claims by the daughter of a former terrorist which she says finally proves Iran was behind the outrage that killed 270 people 30 years ago today.
Jordanian Marwan Khreesat left his wife a dossier of evidence that allegedly shows his boss in a Palestinian terror group, Ahmed Jibril, was paid millions of pound by Tehran to mastermind the horrific attack over the Scottish town.
Khreesat’s 43-year-old daughter Saha claims her father even gave the name of the bombmaker to her mother.
It will add to long-held suspicions that Tehran ordered the atrocity in revenge for the US shooting-down of an Iranian passenger plane months earlier, killing 290 civilians.
Saha insisted Khreesat played no part in the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 and blamed Jibril, who was leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-general Command.
Speaking to us in the middle class suburb of the Jordanian capital Amman, she said: “I think he is responsible, and he has a deal with the Iran government.
“I do have a proof that Ahmed Jibril is responsible for Lockerbie.
“It might be papers or recordings and it is not in our house now.”
Khreesat was identified as a possible Lockerbie suspect shortly after the 1988 attack. He had been arrested two months earlier in Frankfurt with another PFLP-GC member who had plastic explosives hidden in a Toshiba cassette player in his car. The device was very similar to the one used on Flight 103.
He also later admitted his role in the 1972 failed bombing of an Israeli El Al passenger jet from Rome to Tel Aviv.
Asked if her father knew the name of the bombmaker, Saha replied: “For sure he knows but
I don’t know. My dad left something written about this but it’s not in the house.
“If my dad made the bomb he would have taken lots of money but now we don’t have anything because my dad didn’t have anything to do with it.
“Ahmed Jibril took the first million and then he took the rest of the money and got very rich but my dad didn’t take anything.
“The Lockerbie accident has so many hidden things and my dad gave his secret to my mum. He did not give it to me or to my siblings or anyone else. He did not hide anything from mum.”
Saha spoke confidently and smoked throughout our
hour-long meeting after we tracked her down to her home. Her mum was silent and nervous. Asked why her dad did not reveal this information while he was alive, she made reference to the Us-led 1986 bombing of Libyan capital Tripoli, in revenge for terror explosions at a West Berlin nightclub.
She said: “Maybe he just wanted to protect Jordan. Maybe he’ll put Jordan in danger if he talked.
“What happened to Libya will happen to Jordan. Lockerbie is an important topic since it is related to America and no one is supposed to mess with America.”
Saha claimed Jordan’s intelligence services were not interested in the truth about Lockerbie. She added: “When we talk to the government, we tell them we have information and they don’t care. If I said that outside, something bad will happen to us. There’s a secret related to this topic hidden somewhere.”
Saha told how her dad and Jibril fell out. She said: “Jibril said Marwan Khreesat is a double agent for the Jordanian intelligence. He was not. My father was fedai [ fighter]. Ahmed Jibril was his leader. They worked together in Syria and Lebanon. My dad quit.”
Saha insisted it was a coincidence her dad was with another PFLP-GC militant when held in Germany.
She said: “When they arrested him they arrested my dad too. Why did they let him go? Because there was no evidence against him.” Saha’s claims will add to fears that al-megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, is innocent. He was jailed for life after a special trial in Holland.
Al-megrahi was released on compassionate grounds eight years later, suffering from prostate cancer. He died in 2012 aged 60.
Scottish MSP Christine Graham said: “These various discoveries that you have made builds further on the case that it was, as many of us believe, Iran that was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing and that al-megrahi was the fall guy. Libya took the rap for various reasons.”
Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the attack, added: “This confirms what we have known for a long time and have never been able to say in public.” Within MEETING John Major and King Hussein months of Lockerbie, it was being blamed on the PFLP-GC and Iran by the US and UK. America named Jibril.
Former King Hussein of Jordan said the group was behind the attack in a 1996 letter to John Major.
Khreesat died two years ago at 70. Jibril, 80, is believed to be in Syria fighting for Bashar al-assad.
A special mass marking Lockerbie’s 30th anniversary will take place today at Holy Trinity RC Church. Parish priest at the time of the bombing, Canon Pat Keegans, will say he is “not convinced” justice has been done.
I have proof Jibril is responsible for Lockerbie. He has a deal with Iran KHREESAT’S DAUGHTER SAHA POINTS FINGER AT TEHERAN