Lockerbie mystery never solved
THIRTY-TWO years ago Pan Am 103 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Bdelbaset al-Megrahi was the only man convicted of the worst terrorist crime in UK history. He has proclaimed his innocence and unsuccessfully appealed against his conviction.
A new suspect has been charged 32 years later. (Abu Agila Mohammad) Mas’ud is alleged to have built the bomb and worked with Megrahi to carry out the attack.
The case of Megrahi was a complex one since the day he was indicted on 270 counts of murder in November 1991.
Malta has been dogged over the past 32 years by the Lockerbie prosecution’s contention that the bomb responsible for one of the most heinous terrorist acts in history began it’s deadly flight on an Air Malta flight out of Luqa. Many nations have conspired to cover up the true identities of those responsible for planning and executing the Lockerbie crash.
The shocking truth is that Western intelligence agencies were complicit in the murders. From the moment the plane went down, a supposedly impartial investigation was distorted
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to conceal this dark reality from the victims’ relatives and the public.
Many analysts believe that Megrahi was framed and that the Scottish government was part of the cover-up.
No one in authority has the guts to reveal the truth about the bombing. The British government, in effect, blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his release.
Had the appeal gone to a higher court, new and suppressed evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit bomb and bomb timer, discov
ered in the countryside of Lockerbie, and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The evidence would demonstrate the impossibility of the bomb beginning its journey at Malta before it was allegedly transferred through two airports undetected to flight 103.
Megrahi’s trial was a politically influenced sham from the start, in which key witnesses were bribed and coached and crucial evidence was tampered with. New witnesses and crucial
evidence would have shown that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought the clothes that were found in the wreckage of Pan Am 103.
The accused was convicted on the word of a Maltese shop owner who claims to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognise him in court.
During the course of our lifetime, someday, someone will reveal the ultimate truth.
FAROUK ARAIE
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Johannesburg