‘We’ll clear his name’ says al-Megrahi’s son
THE son of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al- Megrahi has said his family are ready to join the legal battle to clear his name.
According to Khaled al-Megrahi, his family are “ready to open” his father’s case.
A posthumous appeal against his dad’s controversial conviction was kicked out last year by legal chiefs who said the bid didn’t have the support of the al-Megrahi family.
But Khaled’s statement, posted yesterday on the Friends of Justice for Megrahi Facebook page, has given campaigners hope the family are set to ask for a fresh appeal to the conviction.
Writing in poor English on the social media site, Khaled said: “We are ready to open my father’s case, I speak behind my family and we believe my father is innocent.”
The Sunday Post has verified with sources close to the case that it was indeed al-Megrahi’s son who made the statement.
Campaigners have welcomed the development. Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the 1988 disaster, said: “If the family are genuinely signing up to this the authorities will need to re-open the case.”
Al- Megrahi, a Libyan spy, died four years ago and is the only person convicted of the bombing of the Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.
Previously, campaigners had applied for the right to appeal in a bid to clear Al-Megrahi of one of the “worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history”.
But the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission – a Scottish Government body – rejected the application last November. It said it could not proceed without the input from al-Megrahi’s family.
Solicitor Aamer Anwar, who represents some of the victims of the tragedy and the Al- Megrahi family, said: “It is becoming clear that this is an unsafe conviction.
“At the time when the SCCRC rejected the case it was impossible for the al- Megrahi family to get involved due to the political turmoil in Libya.
“But now things are settling down in the country we can hopefully move forward and satisfy the paperwork requirements.”
Reacting to Khaled’s post, Reverend John Mosey – whose 19-year-old daughter Helga died in the bombing – wrote: “We are convinced your father is innocent and are working very hard to prove it.”
Al-Megrahi was jailed in 2001 for the terror attack. A year later his first appeal failed. In 2007, the SCCRC said there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
That decision paved the way for a second appeal. But that was dropped in 2009 just before alMegrahi was released from jail by the Scottish Government on “compassionate grounds” due to his terminal cancer.
Al- Megrahi died in 2012 still claiming to be innocent.
Last month, former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill – who announced to the world the Scottish Government would set alMegrahi free – released a book lifting the lid on the reasons behind his decision to free him.
The retired politician claimed releasing al- Megrahi on “compassionate grounds” was only one part of a complex jigsaw.
The book, The Lockerbie Bombing, alleges the decision was made partly to secure £13 billion of oil deals for British firms in Libya.