Herman Grech
Malta had 'no connection' with Lockerbie bomb - government
Doubts cast on Al-Megrahi's guilt
A video grab showing Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi being greeted by Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday. Photo: AFP.
Malta had "no connection" with the bomb that exploded aboard an aircraft over Lockerbie in 1988, Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg told The Sunday Times yesterday.
"The position of the government has never changed on this matter - Malta was not involved in this incident. The bomb never left from Malta," Dr Borg said in the first government reaction since the controversial release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi.
Mr Al-Megrahi returned to Libya on compassionate grounds - he has terminal prostate cancer - last Thursday after being held in a Scottish prison, where he served eight years of a life sentence for the bombing of a Pan Am jet which killed 270 people.
As he arrived in Tripoli to a hero's welcome, sparking outrage in the US and the UK, Mr Al-Megrahi said he had sufficient evidence that would exonerate him from any involvement in the bombing.
In an interview with The Times of London yesterday, Mr Al-Megrahi said: "They believe I'm guilty, which in reality I'm not... One day the truth won't be hiding as it is now. We have an Arab saying: The truth never dies."
The 57-year-old Libyan dropped his second appeal in what some experts have described as smacking of a political deal.
The connection with Malta and subsequently with Mr Al-Megrahi was made when police recovered from the wreckage items of baby clothing bearing the label 'Yorkie' made by a Maltese company. The clothing, traced to a Sliema shop, was found in the suitcase believed to have been carrying the bomb.
Though the courts decided that the bomb left from Malta, another theory was that it had been placed on board a London-bound plane at Frankfurt airport before reaching the Pam Am jet that was bound for New York. Some still believe Iran, and not Libya, was behind the bombing - in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranair flight by an American missile in the summer of 1988, which killed 290.
But Dr Borg said that the withdrawal by Mr Al-Megrahi of the second appeal before the Scottish courts meant that no new light could now be shed on the incident.
Asked if he believed Mr Al-Megrahi was innocent, the Foreign Minister said: "The Scottish Review Court said there were sufficient grounds which could have led to the reopening of the case. Unfortunately this hasn't happened."
Former Air Malta chairman Albert Mizzi and Wilfred Borg, who was ground operations manager at the airport at the time, yesterday also denied there was any Malta connection.
Mr Mizzi said he never believed the bomb was planted in Malta, adding that he is more inclined to believe that the device was planted in Germany.
So is Mr Al-Megrahi innocent?
"Whether he's innocent or not, I cannot say, but all I can tell you is that we had experts like Edgar Mizzi on the case, and they showed that Malta wasn't involved," Mr Mizzi said.
The former Air Malta chairman also knew Mr Al-Megrahi when he was serving as chief of security for Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta.
"He certainly didn't look like the type who would commit such an atrocity, but appearances can be deceiving."
Mr Mizzi maintained that the investigations carried out at the time had dismissed the theory that the bomb was inside unaccompanied luggage which was loaded onto an Air Malta flight. Wilfred Borg, who was Air Malta ground operations manager at the time, said documents for Flight KM180 of December 21, 1988, showed that a total of 39 passengers presented 55 pieces of luggage for check-in.
All 55 pieces of luggage were physically counted and certified as being the only baggage loaded in the holds of the aircraft and no unaccompanied bags were loaded on this flight. The 39 passengers each retrieved their respective luggage at the destination.
Mr Borg, today chief officer of Air Malta's IT Corporate Services, reiterated the airline's contention that the security systems in place at Luqa airport at the time not only met international standards but exceeded those in place at many major airports.
In his autobiography, then Home Affairs Minister Guido de Marco said it seemed highly unrealistic to him at the time that a timing device could have been placed inside unaccompanied baggage that took such a complicated route to get on the plane, since there was so much room for error.
Yet, Prof. de Marco still insisted that a full investigation be carried out by both the Maltese and foreign authorities.
"From my discussions with British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd and other officials, no one was putting the blame on Malta. In fact, according to them, neither the airport authorities nor Air Malta were found wanting in their handling of the luggage in question," Prof. de Marco said.
Was there any unaccompanied luggage on Flight KM180?
Wilfred Borg cited four excerpts from the trial court judgment to prove Air Malta's claim that the bomb never left Malta.
• "Evidence showed that there was no passenger on KM180 who had an onward booking from Frankfurt to London or the US and all the passengers on Air Malta retrieved all their checked-in baggage at their destination. The Malta documentation for KM180 does not record that any unaccompanied baggage was carried."
• "If the unaccompanied bag was launched from Luqa, the method by which it was done is not established, and the prosecution accepted it could not point to any specific route by which the primary suitcase could have been loaded."
• "The absence of any explanation of the method by which the primary suitcase might have been placed on board KM180 is a major difficulty for the prosecution case, and one which has to be considered along with the rest of the circumstantial evidence."
• "The absence of an explanation as to how the suitcase was taken into the system at Luqa is a major difficulty for the prosecution case but after taking full account of that difficulty, we remain of the view that the primary suitcase began its journey at Luqa."
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cecil herbert jones
Aug 24th 2009, 23:31
@Charles Micallef
The cases of Pan Am and Iranair Airbus are beyond our jurisdictional thinking. We can't even dare to opine on what, who and why, where secret military manouvering takes place. We of all people should stay where we have always been, in alterity of any and all international politics. If we dare to get involved may God help us for we are incapable of running the mile.
Just because Gaddafi bailed us out of Civil Servant Wages shouldn't have made us his Civil Servants!!! Did Mintoff ever suffer personal loss of his wages? No of course not. He gave us the minimum wage and ensured he got the maximum wage......ALWAYS!!
@Philip Pace
No I haven't confused the issue. In fact I am very lucid. Mr Al-Megrahi may or may not have been culpable, even though he was a Libyan Secret Service Agent in charge of all airport operations at Luqa Airport. But how did the clothes he bought from a Sliema shop (the attendant may have mistook the man for another) end up wrapped around the bomb that killed 270 people???????????????
Oscar Cassar
Aug 24th 2009, 10:50
If al-Megrahi was innocent, he or his government must have proved it in court instead of still trying to convince us now that he was innocent although he was suppose to have a life imprisonment. This case is only a good example that in front of the law, ‘all animals are equal but some are more equal then others’.
E. Azzopardi
Aug 23rd 2009, 20:54
Correct and we are convinced that this is the case. That is simply not enough. Malta must now press for the evidence to come out to clear her name or else we shall be involved in this forever. No fear of this because we may hurt this one or the other . But perhaps I am asking too much.
philip pace
Aug 23rd 2009, 19:53
It was crystal clear that Malta was never involved in this tragedy.
It was also crystal clear that the Maltese man who testified in this case was not that really convincing. He must be suffering from sleepless nights.
Unfortunately a lot of people believed the USA version and stuck this in their minds that Mr.Al-Megrahi was the criminal who planted the bomb.
I think that Mr.Charles Micallef is right in his answer on what Mr.Cecil Herbert Jones wrote. The latter confused the whole issue.
Charles Micallef
Aug 23rd 2009, 15:47
@ Cecil Herbert Jones
In respect of Al-Megrahi, one is guilty only when he or she is guilty beyond reasonable doubt, which many UK citizens including relatives of the victims always stated that this verdict was far from being beyond reasonable doubt.
The contents of what is stated in my contribution are today accepted by both leading political institutions. Sometimes we need to remove the political blinkers and forget how much we disagreed with Mintoff’s policies at the time, and ask ourselves what where the options, and before anyone claim that there were alternatives, remaining a military base for a pittance was certainly not one of them!
WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE INNOCENT VICTIMS OF PAN AM AND NEITHER SHOULD WE FORGET THE VICTIMS OF THE IRANAIR AIRBUS SHOT OUT OF THE SKY BY USS VINCENT!
THEY ARE BOTH INNOCENT VICTIMS!
Charles Micallef
Aug 23rd 2009, 15:41
@ Cecil Herbert Jones
While it is correct to state that Mintoff crossed lines, bargained and bartered to obtain what he thought was the best deal for his country only history will proof if he was right or wrong. We must remember that the first joint offer that UK and NATO offered Malta for the Bases were two and half million pounds and he was finally given fourteen million lira. That was done with the support of the Libyans. We must also remember that when Malta did not even have any cash to pay for the civil service wages, it was Gaddafi that bank rolled three and a half million lira to cover those wages!
So there is a lot to be said about those particular hard times for Malta, and nobody is saying that Libya helped Malta out the kindness of her heart, but they are the only ones that did!
amifsud
Aug 23rd 2009, 15:23
It is only natural that the Maltese government and Air Malta make a very strong argument for their defence.....but in the same way the Americans (and British) have their strong arguments. Everybody is going to produce evidence which backs up their claims. Who do we believe? Will we ever know truth? I think it is is definite that there is a lot we don't know, that all sides aren't disclosing everything, including Malta. In any case like this it is very often not the evidence that wins out but how that evidence is laid out and used.
Andrew Paris
Aug 23rd 2009, 15:23
It takes a bigger man or in this case government to admit a wrong. Even if Malta was involved with this tragady, it happened, Learn from it so it does not happen again.
cecil herbert jones
Aug 23rd 2009, 13:52
Malta had no connection with the Lockerbie bomb, but had a strong connection with the Libyan dictatorship that had been chasing Libyan dissidents all over the world and gunning them down, that had also bombed a night-club in Germany, and that had been a training ground for terrorist groups like the IRA and others.
Malta's connection with Libya was an intense one, barter trading in everything. It has to be said that Mr Mintoff even crossed the 'line in the sand' of the Cold War, when he expelled European and North American interests from Malta and introduced Soviet USSR, Libyan and (to some extent) Chinese interests instead.
Malta had become an attractive haven for every international hood. All of this was under the guise of a military-free sovereignty. All this was under the guise of instant financial betterment for Malta's economic stability. All this was under the guise of a neutral Malta.
We Maltese had nothing to do with the Lockerbie bomb, I have no doubt about this, but the country had switched sides in the Cold War and for a time anyone against the West could have done whatever they wanted here, and they did.
Charles Muscat
Aug 23rd 2009, 13:41
Why these comment were not made back then?
A. Muscat
Aug 23rd 2009, 13:35
I´m not really a follower of conspiracy theories but it´s not a huge stretch of the imagination to believe that Mr Al-Megrahi was framed.
If we get to know the culprit of the following sagas, we could easily figure out the culprits behind the terrorist attack on PAN AM.
On Sept. 17, 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden was killed as he sought to bring peace to the Middle East.
On February 28, 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme who attempted to prevent bloodshed between Iraq and Iran was assassinated.
On February 21, 1973, Libyan Arab Airways Boeing 727 with 104 passengers was shot down.
Whodunit?
Incredible 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 common peoples are there still interested to know who killed Kennedy or why he was killed?
lgalea
Aug 23rd 2009, 11:36
Mario Tabone-Vassallo,
You are right. The Times is read worldwide and is doing a fine job by giving the opportunity to our sources to rebut the argument that the bomb had left from Malta.
Charles Micallef
You are perfectly correct. There were so many co-incidences and questions that were not answered and knowing the dirty world of international politics which the CIA and similar organizations engage into that one would not be far off in believing that the bomb was even placed by one of these organizations to blame Libya and use Malta as a scapegoat.
How can anyone believe evidence such as the timer allegedly found among the debris when it was the nearest thing if not actually touching the explosive. How could it have survived the thousands of degrees temperature to which it was subjected and the blast which ripped the aircraft apart? How about the flimsy evidence of the Maltese witness who left Malta and allegedly had been groomed by the CIA and who had received a hefty sum of money which was never rebutted? I believe everything was fabricated to blame Libya as a rogue state and Malta for helping it.
Joseph Portelli
Aug 23rd 2009, 11:10
L is Stork gieba - The Stork Delivered the bomb onto the Pan Am flight ! No humans were involved and it never left Malta either.
Infact the man was innoiccent and the Scots let him go scot free.
And ofcourse there was no political deal either.
Then, all of a sudden, according to Saif (Gaddafi's son) - there was a deal ; so we are back to square one. A good day for the terrorists everywhere , a bad day for Malta and a worse day for Scotland and the British Government.
Charles Micallef
Aug 23rd 2009, 11:02
In those days CIA wanted to find the link from where the bomb originated from and Malta became their scapegoat......the description of the man who claimed to have sold the cloths differs both in height and in structure to that of AL-Megrahi.
I lived in UK at the time of the trial, and the man in the street always claimed that the trial was flawed from beginning to end, but the USA wanted a closure to the case, hence the position that we find ourselves in today. If Al Megrahi lived long enough and stayed in Scotland according to his Scottish legal team, he would have cleared his name and then what?.
I firmly believe that the actual culprits are still free today and Malta is still labeled as the bomb’s point of destination! They needed someone to blame and Malta was an easy target
Mario Tabone-Vassallo
Aug 23rd 2009, 10:27
PROSIT TASSEW lill-ministru u lil dil-gazzetta talli inghatat prominenza b'mod li tista' tinqara minn kullhadd fid-dinja li Malta ma kelliex x'taqsam, kif wara kollox kienu jafu mill-bidu l-USA u l-GB. Barra minn dan, ikienu jafu wkoll li l-Libja wkoll ma kelliex x'taqsam