29 years on, family in f inal bid to clear Lockerbie bomber
Son ‘100 per cent certain’ Megrahi was innocent
THE family of the Lockerbie bomber yesterday launched a final bid to clear him of Britain’s biggest mass murder – five years after his death.
They have submitted fresh evidence to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) who ten years ago decided that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi’s conviction may be unsafe and the courts should look at it again.
That appeal was never fully heard because Megrahi abandoned it in 2009 when he was terminally ill with prostate cancer and seeking release from prison in Scotland to spend his last days with his family in Libya.
Now, almost three decades after Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground, the SCCRC will reconsider whether there are sufficient grounds for a review.
Ultimately it could refer the case back to the High Court for a fresh hearing which could overturn the guilty verdict reached by Scottish judges at his trial in 2001. Such an outcome would mean no one at all had been brought to justice for the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britain.
Yesterday, as the Megrahi family’s lawyer Aamer Anwar handed the application into the SCCRC office in Glasgow, the Libyan’s son Ali said he was ‘100 per cent certain’ his father was innocent.
One of the peculiarities of the case is that many victims’ families agree. Accompanying Mr Anwar yesterday was Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the bombing and believes Megrahi had nothing to do with it.
He believes Iran, not Libya, was behind the bombing. Dr Swire said: ‘As the father of Flora, I still ache for her. It has always been and remains my intent to see those responsible for her death brought to justice.’
The case for a fresh court appeal could be strengthened by the fact the SCCRC had already decided Megrahi may have suffered a miscarriage of justice.
It had identified six grounds for referring the case back to the High Court.
But the SCCRC board is completely changed from 2007 and could either reach a different conclusion or decide it is not in the interests of justice to order another appeal given that Megrahi is dead.
Mr Anwar said Megrahi’s family had asked the SCCRC to reconfirm the six grounds it identified in 2007.
Evidence relating to a fragment of circuit board alleged to have formed part of the timer that detonated the bomb has also been raised.
Mr Anwar said: ‘Put simply, the timer claimed by the Crown to be responsible for the bombing cannot be possible.’
Another key plank of evidence being challenged is the testimony of Tony Gauci, who claimed Megrahi came into his store in Malta to buy clothes that were used to wrap the bomb. Mr Gauci, who died last year, is alleged to have been paid more than £1.5million as a reward for giving evidence which is now in serious doubt.
‘As Flora’s father, I still ache for her’