Cynthia Busuttil
Lockerbie bomber's appeal to be dropped
Malta's name may never be cleared
A file photo taken on December 22, 1988, shows local Lockerbie resident Robert Love (right) looking at one of the four engines of the ill-fated Pan Am 747 Jumbo jet that exploded and crashed en route to New-York with 259 passengers on board. Photo: AFP.
The truth behind the Lockerbie bombing is likely never to emerge after the terminally-ill Libyan convicted for the massacre applied to abandon his second appeal.
The lawyers for Abdel Basset al-Megrahi said he had applied to the High Court in Edinburgh, Scotalnd to drop the appeal, after news emerged that he would be freed on compassionate grounds next week.
This comes as a blow to the families of victims who believed more information would have come out during the appeal.
It also means that the Malta connection, on which serious doubts have been voiced, cannot be disproved in court.
"It is very disappointing," said Jane Swire, whose daughter Flora was on the fateful Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York.
Mrs Swire's husband Jim, said earlier this month the truth was less likely to surface if Mr al-Megrahi, whom he believed was innocent, dropped the appeal.
Dr Swire had lobbied for the Libyan national, who has terminal prostate cancer, to be granted compassionate release to ensure the trial could go on. Mr al-Megrahi is serving a life sentence in Scotland for the murder of 270 people in December 1988.
"We thought the appeal might lead to more accurate discovery as to who did it. Now we will probably never know the truth," Mrs Swire told The Times yesterday.
"There is a lot of evidence to show there was a miscarriage of justice, which needs to be aired and seen by the public in a court of law," she added.
Mrs Swire said she would have thought Mr al-Megrahi would have wanted to clear his name. The 57-year-old always insisted he wished to do this before returning home.
"My husband thinks there must be some sort of cover-up and the truth is so unacceptable it must not get out," she said. She admitted knowing the truth was more important for her husband than for her: "I think for mothers it's the fact such a terrible tragedy happened. Exactly how or when or why or what isn't so important."
Malta too might never be cleared from its link to the tragedy. Mr Al-Megrahi was the only man convicted of placing the explosive on an Air Malta flight on December 21, 1988. It was said the suitcase containing the bomb was transferred in Frankfurt to Pan Am flight 103, which then headed for London before continuing to the US.
Robert Black, a former Scottish judge who was the architect of the original Lockerbie trial, told The Sunday Times earlier this year there was no acceptable evidence the bomb left Malta. Malta had presented records during the original trial in the Netherlands showing there were no unaccompanied bags on the flight.
Writing on his blog yesterday, entitled The Lockerbie Case, Prof. Black said it was "sad" Mr al-Megrahi decided to abandon his appeal.
He said the Scottish government had always denied it was ever suggested compassionate release would depend on dropping the current appeal.
"Why, if this is true, did he decide to do it?" he wrote.
He said it could be the former spy wished to keep the option of prisoner transfer open. This required that no legal proceedings were ongoing and could not be granted until the appeal was terminated.
A second option, Prof. Black wrote, was that Mr al-Megrahi believed his chances of being released on compassionate grounds would increase if he voluntarily dropped his appeal, and had arrived at a point where his wish to return home to die was so overwhelming he was prepared to take this course of action.
"Or could there have been some 'deal' between governments which involved abandonment of the appeal as one of its terms?" he asked.
Earlier this week, a Libyan official said an agreement for al-Megrahi's release was "in the last steps" but added a deal had also been struck that neither side would make any official announcement about it until he was on home soil.
"If there has been any intergovernmental agreement regarding Megrahi's repatriation, it would be interesting to find out just what it says. But that, of course, is never likely to happen," Prof. Black said.
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A. Muscat
Aug 15th 2009, 17:34
@ Gerry Cowie
‘What lies behind is a web of intrigue and information that would most likely undermine the national interests of various countries including the UK.’
You are right. Please also read about the involvement of the son of Ex British PM Mrs. Thatcher in major secret deals connected with smuggling weapons for both South Africa and the Middle East. Evidence of this dirty business, coupled with other top-secrets Russian agents and classified information were on board of that Pan Am. The bombarding of this flight was a must, So reported the News Week Magazine a week after this tragedy.
@ Joe Morana
To have full picture please also read about Israel terrorist attack on Libyan Arab Airlines number 114 back on February 21, 1973, where a Libyan Arab Airways Boeing 727 with 104 passengers was shot down by the Israeli Air Force. The aircraft was shot down by a pair of Israeli Air Force F-4E Phantom. Do you remember this terrorist attack?
@ Galea. L
It’s also called back-scratching politics. I am pretty sure if the truth ever reveals many heads of States would be behind bars.
A. Muscat
Aug 15th 2009, 15:49
The big question remains unanswered: Whodunit?
Remarkable human tragedies such as Lockerbie or 9/11 requires long time until the truth is revealed. However this routinely happens after the accidents in question is completely forgotten and peoples lose zeal to know the real culprits. How many are there today still interested to know who killed Kennedy or why he was killed?
The whole Lockerbie tragedy was well panned,designed, and a rich convenient scapegoat (oil country) was required to pay the price. Libya was there to fit the bill.
The unfortunate thing is that over 270 innocent peoples were killed over Lockerbie village. Another couples of thousands (victim of 9/11) were killed too. A whole population suffered through sanctions for almost two decades (Libyans). And now we have the Middle East turned to a powder keg!
All is happening while the real culprits are still at large. Anyway this usually expected when we have fiendish in forms of politicians!
We are the victims that ‘swallow’ what target-media wants us know. Interested to know about, rarely, or hardly mentioned Axis of evil? Hit the following link:
The Master Plan for the World and its effect on Resource Stocks
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/maund/maund092906.html
Galea. L
Aug 15th 2009, 12:23
Welcome to the dirty world of international politics.
Gerry Cowie
Aug 15th 2009, 11:41
The British press, in particular, Private Eye magazine, has covered this story over many years.
It is quite possible that the wrong man was convicted, though of course those who lost people may want somebody to suffer as a result and could never accept that this man might just be innocent, and the whole thing a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Swire himself is convinced of this man's innocence.
What lies behind is a web of intrigue and information that would most likely undermine the national interests of various countries including the UK. The truth may come out many years down the line.
Even if the appeal did take place there would be information which the British authorities would not like to come into the public domain. Moves have been afoot consistently to hush up vital evidence, or to rule it as being inadmissable, according to the press in the UK.
So, was this man the scapegoat for the national interests of the UK and other countries?
Hopefully one day the truth will out. Until then it is hard to judge.
Robert Callus
Aug 15th 2009, 11:38
I don't think compassion has to do with this. They want the man to shut up, which increases the likelyhood that he is innocent, and that the Malta connection is false.
e.cortis
Aug 15th 2009, 11:20
I am in no way condoning whoever committed this heiniuos crime. Far from it . But let us not forget that barely six months before, on July 3, 1988, the USS VINCENNES shot down an Airbus of Iran Air which was mistaken for an F-14 (!) fighter of the Iranian Air Force !!, killing all 290 passengers and crew in the Strait of Hormuz. The captain and crew of the US Ship were welcomed as heroes and decorated !!. Later investigations found human errors,Human/Systems Interface mishaps, which led the US ship into Iranian waters !!.
Unfortunately , evidences which connected the two incidents together, were brushed aside by the authorities. The star witness in the trial was a Maltese who received millions of dollars from the Americans for his "dubious" (as described by many) testimony. Unfortunately, truth will never be known in this world of espionage and counter-espionage. May God have mercy on the innocent souls of the departed of both planes, Iran Air Flight 655 and Pan Am Air Flight 103 .
Joe Morana
Aug 15th 2009, 10:36
"His wish to return home to die...", more than likely entails a hero's welcome, much as was accorded to the bodies of the terrorists who massacred the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the award of the Medal of the Freedom of the Jamahourriya, and then a quiet 'whisking away' never to be seen again. The information he has kept to himself would be very damaging indeed to certain parties.