Lockerbie: ‘No jury could have convicted Megrahi’
No reasonable jury could have convicted the late Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-megrahi of the Locker bie bombing, appeal court judges have heard.
The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York on 21 December 1988, killed 270 people in Britain's largest terrorist atrocity.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Meg ra hi, who was found guilt y in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years, was the only person convicted of the attack.
A third appeal against his conviction began at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
Claire Mitchell QC, repre - senting the Megrahi family, said the original trial court agreed the disaster was caused by the explosion of an improvised explosive device in a Toshiba cassette player.
It was in a brown Samsonite suitcase along with various items of clothing that were bought at Mary' s House in Malta.
The court heard that during the trial, shopkeeper Tony Gauci gave evidence that a man resembling Megrahi had purchased the items of clothing at his store.
She said the Crown case in the original trial was that the suitcase was loaded on to flight KM180 at Luqa airport, Malta, which flew to Frankfurt.
The bag was then transferred to a feeder flight for Pan Am 103 from London and on to that flight itself.
She said the Crown case did not establish how the suitcase, referred toast he" primary
suitcase" was loaded on to the flight from Malta.
Ms Mitchell said :" The absence of any other explanation of the method by which a primary suitcase might have been placed on board KM180 is a major difficulty for the Crown case and one which has to be considered along with the rest of the circumstantial evidence.
"That is a critical issue because I say in this case that the way in which that major
difficulty was overcome was by the court making the finding that on December 7 the appellant( Megrahi) purchased the clothing, which was found in the suitcase containing the bomb."
Appeal judges heard the trial court found the reliable parts of Mr Gauci's evidence were the person who purchased the clothes was Libyan and the clothes were bought from his shop.
The High Court heard on
Tuesday that Mr Gauci said Megrahi resembled the buyer but did not make an unequivocal identification.
Ms Mitchell said there were questions over whether the date of the purchase was 7 December 1988, a date when the Crown could prove that Megrahi was in Malta, or a different date.
In particular, she highlighted discussions over when Christmas lights had been up, which left "the date of purchase on a
shoogly peg".
Ms Mitchell said the date hinges on whether the lights were up and if it was two weeks before Christmas as stated in Mr Gauci's evidence - though in a police statement he had said they were not up. The appeal, which is taking place virtually, began yesterday and is being heard before five judges including Lord President Lord Carlo way.