US Lockerbie families speak out against new bomber appeal

[This is the headline over a report published today in the Scottish edition of The Times. It reads in part:]

The families of the American Lockerbie victims have condemned a decision to launch a new appeal to clear the bomber’s name.

Mary Kay Stratis, whose husband, Elia, died in the attack, has spoken out on behalf of the US families, describing the appeal as “redundant, ineffective and futile”.

Relatives of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001 of planting the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over southern Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people, launched a new legal bid to clear his name last week. (...)

The papers filed by al-Megrahi’s family will go to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which will then decide whether there are grounds to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.

The move has angered the families of the Americans who died in the atrocity. In a statement to The Times on behalf of a group of victims’ relatives Mrs Stratis said: “We believe that justice was done in the Scottish judgment and the appeal and we believe that the Scottish judicial system is praiseworthy despite the calumny visited upon it by al-Megrahi’s supporters.

“The case and the appeal have already been given rigorous scrutiny by the presiding judges and we do not believe the Scottish review commission can alter what has already been proven.”

Mrs Stratis said that the families of the American victims had “great admiration for the people of Scotland especially the citizens of Lockerbie”, who she said had “opened their hearts” to them.

She added that the only objection the American relatives had was to the release of al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

“We believe it is past time to revisit yet another futile attempt at an appeal and that now resources, time, and efforts should be spent on interrogating those remaining from the Gaddafi regime,” she said.

Mrs Stratis said that the American relatives were “realistic in believing that al-Megrahi could not have acted alone” but they also believed “that he carried out the orders he was given to cause this act of terrorism to happen”.

She said: “Pursuing truth and justice is still our goal. We believe there is more truth to uncover but putting efforts and resources towards another appeal for Megrahi is redundant, ineffective and futile.”

Jim Swire, an English doctor who lost his daughter Flora in the attack, said he believed that there was a case for looking again at the evidence.

“If the case is to be re-examined the starting point should be to make sure the examination is based on all the evidence in the Megrahi case,” he said.

“In those circumstances, it seems to me that the most logical next step is to re-examine the evidence and see whether it stands up in the Court of Appeal.”

Aamer Anwar, a lawyer for al-Megrahi’s family, said: “This is a legal process that must be pursued, as the only forum where the significant doubts over the conviction of the late al-Megrahi can be settled once and for all is of course the Scottish Court of Appeal.

“Whilst the pain and anguish of the American relatives is understandable they should also be aware that this appeal would have the support of many British relatives who lost their loved ones too that awful night in December 1988.

“We have their support because they believe there can be no justice without the truth.”

Tony Gauci’s evidence

[On this date in 2000 the Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci gave his evidence at the Lockerbie trial. Glasgow University’s Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit recorded his appearance in the witness box in a brief report that reads as follows:]

The main evidence on Tuesday was that of Mr Tony Gauci. Mr Gauci is the proprietor of the shop 'Mary's House' in Sliema, Malta from where the clothing in the suitcase allegedly containing the explosive device is said to have been purchased. He stated that the man who purchased the clothing resembled one of the accused - Mr Al Megrahi. However, he also admitted that in 1991 he had identified Mohamed Abu Talb as closely resembling the man who had made the purchases. The latter is, of course, one of the individuals incriminated by the defence.'

[RB: A full transcript of Mr Gauci’s evidence can be read here (pages 1467 to 1500). A devastating analysis by Kevin Bannon of the Gauci evidence can be read here.]

The dark cloud over justice in Scotland

Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer has today posted on his Intel Today website a long series of quotes about the Lockerbie case. These demonstrate just how widespread and pervasive is scepticism about the justice of the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

One of the factors that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has to consider in relation to the recent application by the Megrahi family is whether it is in the interests of justice that there should be a further appeal. The quotes published by Dr De Braeckeleer starkly illustrate precisely how unimpressed knowledgeable observers are about the performance of the Scottish criminal justice system in the Lockerbie case (and those knowledgeable observers extend far beyond the “usual suspects” like Dr Jim Swire and me). It is manifestly in the interests of justice -- and in the interests of the Scottish justice system -- that our courts should be accorded the opportunity to rescue their tarnished reputation. It is difficult to see how else the dark cloud over the administration of justice in Scotland can ever be lifted.

Brown insisted he could not intervene in Megrahi case

What follows is excerpted from an item originally posted on this blog on this date in 2009:

Gaddafi demands return of Lockerbie bomber in first meeting with Brown

In his first face to face meeting with Gordon Brown, Muammar Gaddafi today demanded the return of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

The Libyan leader was told by the prime minister that it was a matter for the Scottish courts. [RB: Tony Blair was, of course, mistaken: it was a matter for a Scottish Government minister.]

Gaddafi, wearing a flowing black and white silken robe and protected by female bodyguards, is at the G8 summit in Italy as the rotating president of the African Union. (...)

In a 40-minute meeting between the two leaders, conducted in Arabic and English, Brown insisted he could not intervene in the Megrahi case.

Scottish judges this week delayed completing an appeal into Megrahi's conviction until at least September, even though he has prostate cancer and faces a risk of dying in prison.

The bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 killed 270 people on the aircraft and the ground.

Gaddafi's demand for the return of Megrahi was countered by Brown urging him to do more to cooperate with the Metropolitan police investigation into the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984.

Her murder led to the severing of diplomatic ties between the two countries for a decade, but Gaddafi subsequently worked to improve relations with the west, so much so that Tony Blair went to Tripoli to meet him in 2004.

The Libyans have admitted responsibility for Fletcher's killing by embassy staff and have paid compensation, but Britain is complaining that Libya is not producing witnesses, meaning the inquiry has stalled for more than a year.

[From a report by Patrick Wintour on the website of The Guardian. There is a (...) shorter report on the BBC News website.]

UN intends to lift Libya sanctions

[On this date in 1999 the United Nations Security Council affirmed its intention to lift the various sanctions imposed over the years on Libya for its failure to hand over the Lockerbie suspects for trial. A statement was issued in the following terms:]

The Security Council recalls its resolutions 731 (1992) of 21 January 1992, 748 (1992) of 31 March 1992, 883 (1993) of 11 November 1993 and 1192 (1998) of 27 August 1998 and the statement of its President of 8 April 1999 (S/PRST/1999/10).

The Security Council welcomes the report of the Secretary-General of 30 June 1999 (S/1999/726) in fulfilment of the request contained in paragraph 16 of resolution 883 (1993).

The Security Council welcomes the positive developments identified in the report and the fact that the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has made significant progress in compliance with the relevant resolutions. It welcomes also the commitment given by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to implement further the relevant resolutions by continuing cooperation in order to meet all the requirements contained therein. It encourages all parties concerned to maintain their spirit of cooperation. The Council recalls that the measures set forth in resolutions 748 (1992) and 883 (1993) have been suspended, and reaffirms its intention to lift those measures as soon as possible, in conformity with the relevant resolutions.

The Security Council expresses its gratitude to the Secretary-General for his continued efforts in his role as set out in paragraph 4 of resolution 731 (1992) and paragraph 6 of resolution 1192 (1998), and requests him to follow developments regarding this matter closely and to report to the Council accordingly.

The Security Council remains actively seized of the matter.

Restoration of diplomatic relations with Libya

[The following are three snippets from this date in 1999 that appear on the Libya: News and Views website:]

The UK has announced it is restoring full diplomatic links with Libya after a break of 15 years. The move follows the Libyan Government's acceptance of "general responsibility" for the killing of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot dead outside its London embassy in 1984. It has also agreed to pay substantial compensation to the Fletcher family and to co-operate in the investigation to find the killer. The compensation is understood to reach six figures, although the actual amount is not being revealed. [BBC]

Libya's UN ambassador on Wednesday attributed Libya's thaw in relations with Britain to Tripoli's surrender of two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing case and said it was time UN sanctions were lifted. Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda said a resumption of ties with Britain, announced by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, “is the natural thing.” Dorda was reacting to Cook's announcement on Wednesday that London was resuming diplomatic relations with Libya after Tripoli agreed to cooperate in police investigations into the 1984 shooting of a British policewoman outside Libya's embassy in London. Cook told parliament Libya had also agreed to pay compensation for the killing. [Reuters]

The United States will not follow Britain's example and resume ties with Libya, at least until Tripoli offers compensation for the Americans killed over Lockerbie in 1988, the State Department said on Wednesday. Britain is reopening diplomatic relations after 15 years because Tripoli has agreed to cooperate in police investigations into the fatal shooting in 1984 of a British policewoman outside Libya's embassy in London. In Washington, US State Department spokesman James Foley noted the Libyan concessions and said the United States would seek the same for the families of victims of Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland. [Reuters]

Justice delayed

This blog is ten years old today. The two items published on 7 July 2007 can be read here and here. They have stood the test of time rather well, I think.

[What follows is the text of a report published in the Evening Standard on this date in 2009:]

The cancer-stricken Lockerbie bomber could die before a decision is made on his appeal after new delays in the case, his lawyer warned today.

It was revealed that one of the judges hearing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's long-running appeal against conviction has had heart surgery.

Scotland's top judge, the Lord Justice General Lord Hamilton, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Lord Wheatley's recuperation may be "protracted" and it is thought he will not be fit to resume judicial duties until mid-September.

Lord Hamilton said the situation "complicates matters".

The court has already heard full submissions on two grounds of appeal, but the court will not now be able to give its decision on those grounds until the autumn.

Al Megrahi's QC, Margaret Scott, expressed dismay at the situation, but acknowledged it arose out of "unforeseen and unexpected" circumstances.

She told the court the defence wished to see a decision reached as soon as possible.

"My Lord will appreciate in this court justice delayed is justice denied," she said.

"There is a very real risk my client will die before this appeal is adjudicated."

She added that it was difficult to conceive of "more pressing circumstances".

Al Megrahi was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.

Ms Scott told the court that her client's health was deteriorating and he was experiencing a "relentless onset of symptoms".

[RB: I published the following comment two days later:]

While the illness of one of the judges would inevitably cause a measure of delay, the Appeal Court's clear failure to take effective steps to minimise that delay is nothing short of disgraceful. Their Lordships should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

None of the journalists I worked with on the story ever believed that Libya was guilty

[What follows is excerpted from an article by Arthur MacDonald published on this date in 2008 in the Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) which draws parallels between the Piper Alpha disaster and the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, both in 1988:]

The Lockerbie disaster was triggered by a bomb, planted on the plane (...).

One of my happier memories of covering this awful event was speaking to a press officer from the US Central Intelligence Agency, who, when I first called them assured me they did not know who killed John F Kennedy, even before I asked them.

How did they know I was going to pose this question? All you Limeys ask that, I was told.

At the time, the UK officially did not have a secret service so instead of talking to MI5 or MI6, journalists were left to deal through PC Plod from Glasgow.

Exactly when everyone decided Libya was responsible for this outrage I can't actually remember. Mr Gadaffi seemed to be everybody's whipping boy at the time, so that could explain it.

What I do know is that none of the journalists I worked with on the story ever believed that Libya was guilty. Nor did most of the victims' relatives.

Today only one man has been convicted of being involved in what was the worst airline terrorist attack before 9/11.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed Al Megrahi has been rotting in a Scottish jail since his show trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. He was simply accused of being a Libyan intelligence officer and that was that.

Anyone who knows anything about what happened to Pan Am flight 103 knows that delivering the bomb onto the aircraft was a highly complex operation and it was certainly not carried out by one person.

It was almost certainly not carried out by Libyans either.

But just as the people who were behind the Piper Alpha disaster have never been brought to justice, neither have the people responsible for Lockerbie.

And for some reason I just don't understand, no one is bothering to do anything about this.

Lockerbie suspect Abdullah Senussi in Tripoli hotel

[What follows is excerpted from a report published this morning on the website of The Herald:]

He is wanted in Scotland in connection with the biggest mass murder in our history.

He has a death sentence hanging over his head from his own country. And he has enemies who wish to see him buried.

Yet Abdullah al-Senussi, Libya’s one-time intelligence chief, former dictator Mummer Gaddafi’s “executioner” and the ultimate boss of the man known as the Lockerbie bomber is not in jail or hiding. He is, according to local reports, “holding court” in a four-star hotel in Tripoli, the 351-room Radisson Blu Mahari.

Mr Senussi is one of two men Scotland’s Crown Office want to speak to about Lockerbie. They do not doubt the conviction of Abdelbast Al-Megrahi (...)

They just don’t think Megrahi, who never admitted his guilt, acted alone.

The 1988 bombing of Pam Am Flight 103, prosecutors believe, was an operation of Libya’s intelligence system. Mr Senussi, who was married to Mr Gaddafi’s sister and a confidante of the murderous Libyan leader, was a core player in that regime network. Scottish prosecutors have made no secret they wish to speak to Mr Senussi and another operative, Mohammed Masud.

Both men were believed to be in a Tripoli prison, so Scottish authorities hoped to get hold of them, before any death penalty on Mr Senussi was carried out.

However, Libya now only exists on maps. The country has been ruled by strongmen and rival factions since the 2011 civil war which followed the fall and death of Mr Gaddafi. So prosecutors may wish to put Mr Senussi in the dock but that is, politically, logistically and diplomatically, difficult.

First, there is a queue. The International Criminal Court has indicted the 64-year-old for crime against humanity. Second, they have to figure out who to ask for Mr Senussi’s head. And that is not obvious.

The Libya Herald, an English-language news site, said Mr Senussi was taken to the Radisson last month after the prison where he was being held, the notorious Al-Hadba, changed hands after fighting in May. Mr Senussi is now thought to be under the control of the militia which captured the jail, Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade of Hithaim Tajouri.

Going down in history as the Lockerbie bomber

[There has been extensive media coverage of yesterday’s submission of an application by the Megrahi family to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. A representative selection can be found here on Google News. Magnus Linklater’s article in The Times unsurprisingly doubts whether the application will succeed, largely relying on the Ken Dornstein film. Serious critiques of the “evidence” in this film can be found here (John Ashton) and here (Kevin Bannon).

The reaction of Christine Grahame MSP to the news is recorded on the Midlothian View website:]

SNP MSP Christine Grahame has welcomed the news that the family of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi have lodged a fresh application to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in pursuit of a further appeal against his conviction for the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. The disaster, which saw Pan Am Flight 103 destined for New York explode above the Scottish town on 21 December 1988, killed 270 people and is considered the most destructive act of terror in Scottish history.

Grahame, who met with the late Mr Megrahi three times whilst he was in prison in Greenock, and has long campaigned against the conviction, said:

“I am pleased that Mr Megrahi’s family has decided pursue an appeal against his conviction. I believe Mr Megrahi was wrongly convicted and that he abandoned his own appeal in desperation to return home before he died”

“I provided a statement for this application to the family’s solicitor Aamer Anwar and I sincerely hope the SCCRC remit the case to the High Court for a further appeal when all the evidence can be heard at last.

“I know how important it was for Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi to have his family’s name cleared. He told me on my final visit to him that he did not want the family name to go down in history as the Lockerbie bomber.

“It is also important for the victims’ families to learn the truth at last.” 

CIA wanted the suspects eliminated to stop any trial taking place

What follows is an item originally posted on this blog on this date in 2013.

CIA ‘wanted to kill Lockerbie bomber before trial’

[This is the headline over a report in today’s edition of The Scotsman, published the day after this item appeared in this blog.  The Scotsman’s story reads in part:]

The CIA wanted to assassinate Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi and his co-accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, before their trial, a former Washington lobbyist has claimed.

William C Chasey, 73, made the sensational allegation in his autobiography, Truth Never Dies, which is to be turned into a film.

He claims agents tried to convince him to plant homing devices on Megrahi and Fhimah as part of the plot.

However, a former FBI chief has dismissed the claim as “nonsense”. (...)

Mr Chasey, president of the Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility, a non-governmental organisation, became involved with Libya and the Lockerbie investigation when he was a lobbyist in Washington.

“On behalf of business clients, I went on a lobbying mission in 1992 with a US congressman in a bid to stabilise relations between the US and [Muammar] Gaddafi’s hated regime,” he said.

He told how he was taken to a private meeting with the two Lockerbie accused at a house in Tripoli. “Myself and the congressman and his wife then met Gaddafi and heard his pleas for help within Washington to get sanctions lifted, and heard his claims that Libya was not involved in Lockerbie,” Mr Chasey said.

“He spoke of the death of his daughter in a US air attack on his home and appealed directly to the congressman’s wife, as a mother, to get her husband to use his influence.”

Mr Chasey claims this clandestine meeting raised suspicions at the FBI, which launched a lengthy investigation into him.

Then, in 1995, he wrote a controversial book, Foreign Agent 4221: The Lockerbie Cover-Up, which claimed Libya was not responsible for the bombing.

“The FBI investigation, along with a probe by the US tax service, damaged my business and put incredible pressure on my wife, Virginia, and our young daughter Katie,” he said.

The family moved to Poland, where Mr Chasey had ties.

He said: “I was hit with 21 felony charges over crimes including wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, even larceny and forgery over allegations I stole headed notepaper from congressional offices.”

He denies the claims and says all but one were dropped in 1998 when he agreed a plea bargain and admitted a charge of filing a false tax return.

It was at this point he claims he was contacted by the CIA at Dulles Airport in Washington. “An agent approached me and asked if I could meet again with Megrahi and Fhimah to pinpoint their location so the CIA could assassinate them. In return, the charge would be dropped and my record expunged,” he said.

“He wasn’t explicit but my belief is that the CIA wanted the suspects eliminated to stop any trial taking place and bury the alternative view that Iran and Syria were behind Lockerbie.”

Mr Chasey, 73, was sentenced to 75 days in jail, 75 days in a half-way house and two years probation for the tax offence. He said: “I was sent to Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania and was amazed when I was joined in the canteen one day by the same CIA agent and one of his colleagues, dressed as inmates.

“They offered to free me and clear my record, but I said I would not take part in their plot to put electronic homing devices in the suspects’ residences so they could be targeted. I told them, ‘With all of your vast resources, the one thing you will never be able to destroy is my character’.”

Mr Chasey said he had decided to speak out now after being diagnosed with incurable cancer.

“Apart from my wife, no-one has known about this until now. I love my country, but I fear my government”, he said.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 23, died in the bombing, believes Megrahi was innocent. He said he had read Mr Chasey’s book and thought it was believable. “I think Bill Chasey is telling the truth about the CIA,” he said. “He is a respected philanthropist and was a leading lobbyist in Washington, so he’s not a crank.”

However, former FBI assistant director Buck Revell, who oversaw its Lockerbie investigation until 1991, said of Mr Chasey’s claims: “That’s nonsense.”

The CIA refused to comment.

Megrahi wasn't the bomber says Kenny MacAskill

[What follows is excerpted from an article by former Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill published this evening on the iNews website:]

Only Megrahi and his co-accused were surrendered, though many others were wanted by the prosecution, and only he was convicted.

The evidence was weak, understandably given the circumstances. That has been compounded by doubts over Tony Gauci’s evidence. He was a crucial witness who identified Megrahi as the man who bought clothes placed in the suitcase containing the bomb. His already debatable evidence has been damaged by information that the Americans paid him for it.  

So there are doubts: but that doesn’t mean an appeal is certain to proceed or be successful. After all, Libya carried out the bombing. The evidence showed that, Gadaffi admitted it, and those who succeeded him accepted it. [RB: Gaddafi did not admit it. The terms of his regime’s “acceptance of responsibility” can be read here. The value of the hasty acceptance of Libyan responsibility by politicians who supplanted Gaddafi can be regarded with a measure of scepticism.]

Moreover, whilst Megrahi wasn’t the bomber, he was a senior Libyan agent.

Suggestions that he had no role in it are fanciful. But whatever the outcome, as with JFK, the arguments will run and run.

[RB: This is quite mind-blowing stuff from a lawyer: Megrahi “wasn’t the bomber” but because he was “a senior Libyan agent” (actually, he wasn’t) it is “fanciful” to suggest he had no role in the bombing! Forget about evidence, forget about due process, Kenny knows best!

An article by Mr MacAskill in much the same terms appears in The Scotsman edition of Wednesday, 5 July. It does not improve with repetition.]