Foreign Minister George Vella said this evening that he was sure that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing 25 years ago, was actually innocent.
The comment was the most direct by a serving Maltese foreign minister about the controversial conviction, based around the evidence of a Maltese shopkeeper and his brother.
Speaking on TimesTalk, Dr Vella said the government did not intend to point fingers at one country or other, but in view of the evidence that was emerging, he personally felt that the case needed to be heard once more before new judges in the interests of justice, not least that of al-Megrahi, even though he had now passed away.
However, as a country, Malta had good relations with the countries involved, including the US and the UK. The situation in Libya had also changed in 25 years, and Malta therefore had nothing to gain in pushing the case once more.
Dr Vella said his personal belief was that the bomb which downed the Pan-Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie in Scotland was a revenge attack after an Iranian passenger aircraft was shot down by a US warship in 1988.
Earlier in the programme, lawyer Giannella de Marco said there was never any evidence to back the claim that the Lockerbie bomb was loaded on an Air Malta flight from Malta to Frankfurt and then to London for the Pan-Am jumbo.
All the luggage loaded on the Air Malta aircraft in question had been accounted for and there were no unaccompanied bags.
Dr Vella agreed, and said that once there was no evidence that the bomb started its journey in Malta, one could never find Malta-based Abdelbaset al-Megrahi guilty. Nor did it make sense that of the two accused, one was convicted and another one, Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima was acquitted.
With regard to reward money promised to Tony and Paul Gauci for their evidence in the Lockerbie trial, Dr Vella said that at no stage did the Gauci brothers actually request money.
Dr de Marco said there was evidence that the statements by the Gaucis changed several times, there was talk of reward money and money was given. Tony Gauci gave several versions of his description of Megrahi. One could not depend on a person who was inconsistent and was paid at the end of his evidence.
Jim Swire, the father of one of passengers who died on the doomed Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, said he was convinced that the type of bomb used could not have been loaded on an aircraft from Malta or Frankfurt as it would otherwise have exploded earlier. (See his comments on video below)