Lockerbie appeal. Lack of media interest.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Peter P - yes, excellent analysis.

The alleged grubby trade deals of Lord Mandy & co are a deliberate diversion away from your points 1 & 2:

1. Prevention of further scrutiny of either the original or substantial new evidence in open court.
2. The existing guilty verdict to stand.

However, there is a wildcard here which some elements may attempt to exploit.

The alternate theories to Libyan guilt mainly involve:

a) the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC);

b) a deep black CIA drugs route which was, allegedly, about to be exposed by US intelligence officers (CIA Beirut station chief) Matthew Gannon and (hostage-rescue expert) Major Charles McKee, who may or may not have died on the plane.

Libya may now make public the evidence which the UK & US governments have refused to allow to be put before the Scottish court, and which - at face value - appears to put Megrahi's guilt in substantial doubt. The following is a decent enough summary of some of the problems, legal shenanigans, and high profile criticism of the process:

New information casting fresh doubts about Megrahi's conviction was examined at a procedural hearing at the Judicial Appeal Court (Court of Session building) in Edinburgh on 11 October 2007:

His lawyers claim that vital documents, which emanate from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and relate to the Mebo timer that allegedly detonated the Lockerbie bomb, were withheld from the trial defence team.[16]

Tony Gauci, chief prosecution witness at the trial, is alleged to have been paid $2 million for testifying against Megrahi.[17]
Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, has claimed that in 1991 the FBI offered him $4 million to testify that the timer fragment found near the scene of the crash was part of a Mebo MST-13 timer supplied to Libya.[18]
Former employee of Mebo, Ulrich Lumpert, swore an affidavit in July 2007 that he had stolen a prototype MST-13 timer in 1989, and had handed it over to "a person officially investigating the Lockerbie case".[19]

On 1 November 2007 Megrahi invited Robert Black QC to visit him at Her Majesty's Prison, Greenock. After a 2-hour meeting, Black stated "that not only was there a wrongful conviction, but the victim of it was an innocent man. Lawyers, and I hope others, will appreciate this distinction."[20]

Prior to Megrahi's second appeal, another four procedural hearings took place at the High Court of Appeal in Edinburgh between December 2007 and June 2008.[21][22]

In the June 2008 edition of the Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm, the UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial, Professor Hans Köchler, referred to the 'totalitarian' nature of Megrahi's second appeal process saying it "bears the hallmarks of an 'intelligence operation'."[23][24]

Pointing out an error on the FCO's website and accusing the British government of "delaying tactics" in relation to Megrahi's second Lockerbie appeal, UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial Dr Hans Köchler wrote to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 21 July 2008 saying:[25]

As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national. Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Mr. Al-Megrahi’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary. The Appeal cannot go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom, through the PII certificate issued by you, denies the Defence the right (also guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution. How can there be equality of arms in such a situation? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way?

The FCO corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008:[26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megrahi

If the case agasint Libya and Megrahi falls into public disrepute, then there is a second bogey man upon whom Lockerbie can be blamed: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, who were allegedly funded by Iran.

Turning the blame back on Iran may be highly useful for Them, in geopolitical terms, as well as turning attention away from the allegations of CIA drug running.