Lockerbie bombing witness dies
Evidence of Maltese shopkeeper key to conviction of al-Megrahi
THE Maltese shopkeeper whose evidence helped convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi of the Lockerbie bombing has died.
According to the Times of Malta, Tony Gauci, who lived in Swieqi in Malta, died of natural causes.
He was the key witness in the case against Megrahi, as he said he had sold him items the prosecution said had been packed into the bomb suitcase.
Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing 270 people.
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 and flown to Scotland to serve his sentence, but he insisted he was innocent until his death from cancer.
In 1991, Mr Gauchi made a tentative identification of Megrahi, which he repeated at an ID parade eight years later and again during his trial evidence.
The trial judgment detailed how the three judges were satisfied Megrahi had walked into Mr Gauci’s shop and bought items of clothing that ended up packed around the bomb that exploded in a suitcase on board the flight.
However, large question marks persisted over Mr Gauci’s evidence. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) discovered that post-trial he received a reward of at least $2 million from the US Department of Justice, and it was later said he had moved to Australia.
Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was convicted of 270 counts of murder and jailed for life. But an investigation by the SCCRC led to a finding of six grounds where it was believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred, paving the way for a second appeal.
The Libyan dropped that appeal in 2009 before being released from jail on compassionate grounds due to his terminal prostate cancer. He died in Libya in 2012.
The SCCRC had questioned the evidence regarding the date on which the prosecution said the clothes were bought from Mr Gauci’s shop.
It also argued evidence that cast doubt on Mr Gauci’s identification of Megrahi had not been made available to the defence, contrary to the rules to ensure fair trials.
It said there was evidence that four days before he identified Megrahi, Mr Gauci had seen a photograph of him in a magazine article on the Lockerbie bombing.
But two years ago, Scotland’s top law officer, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, confirmed that he was still convinced that that Megrahi had been guilty, and said Scottish prosecutors would never give up the fight to find his accomplices.
But George Thomson, who worked for Megrahi’s defence team, told the Times of Malta: “When I last spoke to Basset on his deathbed, he spoke of the day that he and Tony might meet in another place, where Tony would have to face him and answer for the lies he said against him.”