Hopes dashed for in-depth inquiry into Lockerbie

Published on Sunday 16 August 2009 22:08

A COMPREHENSIVE public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing is unlikely to go ahead after the UK government said it would not support another investigation, The Scotsman can reveal.

Calls for an inquiry have been growing after the decision of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop a second appeal against his conviction for the 1988 terrorist attack. Families of the victims had believed that many questions surrounding the attack would have been answered during the appeal.

Scottish Government sources also indicated they would be supportive of a joint "cross-border inquiry" between Holyrood and Westminster, but it emerged last night that senior officials have ruled out supporting another investigation.

Without Whitehall's support, experts have said a Scottish Government-initiated inquiry would be futile since it could only look at the workings of the Scottish judicial system and would have little power to call witnesses and demand crucial documents. Accusations have been made that SNP ministers in Holyrood have only floated the idea of a public inquiry to take the heat off the difficult decision facing justice secretary Kenny MacAskill over whether to send Megrahi back to Libya.

Meanwhile, Mr MacAskill, who is widely expected to make his decision tomorrow after the Scottish cabinet meets, is coming under further pressure from opposition parties to clarify his position on Megrahi.

Labour's justice spokesman Richard Baker said the case had been mishandled even though the Scottish Government said no decision had yet been made.

He complained that the case had been characterised by private briefings in the press and undermined by Mr MacAskill visiting Megrahi in jail.

"We need clarity now and some answers. The eyes of the world are on Scotland in its decision over Megrahi's fate – but there are serious questions over the way the Scottish Government has handled this process."

Last night Libya's charge d'affaires in London, Omar Jelban, said reports that Megrahi has just three months to live were the reason he has dropped a second appeal and hopes to return to his family shortly.

Two applications have been made by Megrahi's lawyers, one for compassionate release because of his ill-health and the other a prisoner transfer following an agreement between the UK and Libyan governments.

The Scotsman understands that compassionate release is more likely because it is "the least objectionable" to the American government since it does not break the terms of the international agreement that Megrahi would serve his sentence in Scotland.

Yesterday the Scottish Government made clear it did not want to go on the record over its hopes to have a public inquiry into the Lockerbie bombing until after a decision had been made on whether to send Megrahi back to Libya.

However, sources confirmed that ministers would be inclined to support a public inquiry. One senior source pointed out that, in the past, First Minister Alex Salmond had supported this, but the SNP realise that for it to have teeth it would need to be supported by the UK government.

Last night a senior Whitehall source indicated to The Scotsman that this support would not be forthcoming.

He said there would be no formal comment until after a decision had been made by Mr MacAskill regarding Megrahi's future. But he claimed that the prospect of an inquiry was only being aired in briefings because "SNP ministers don't like to have to make difficult decisions". He claimed Mr MacAskill was "feeling the heat" over having to decide whether to send Megrahi back to Libya and was floating ideas to "create a distraction".

There were also questions from Whitehall over why a public inquiry would be necessary when a man had been found guilty of the crime in a trial run by Scottish judges under Scottish law, which had already been unsuccessfully appealed once.

One of Scotland's leading QCs, Paul McBride, said that, without support from Westminster, a public inquiry would be "a complete waste of time".

He pointed out that the Scottish Government did not have the international clout or the powers to demand witnesses to turn up to the inquiry or papers be released for it.

"Any proper public inquiry into Lockerbie would involve defence and foreign affairs which are also reserved," he went on. "That means that if the Scottish Government called its own public inquiry, it could only look at the workings of the Scottish judicial system."

TWO DECADES ON, AND THE QUESTIONS THAT JUST WON'T GO AWAY

MORE than 20 years after a bomb blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, important questions over what happened remain unanswered.

Many relatives of the British victims have long maintained that the wrong man was jailed for the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil.

In particular, Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 24, was on the flight and who played a part in bringing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to trial, believes there has been a miscarriage of justice.

But any hopes that a second appeal by Megrahi might shed further light on what happened were dashed when the Libyan announced that the appeal was to be formally withdrawn.

It now looks like only a public inquiry will be able to answer those outstanding questions.

Many relatives and politicians have long claimed that events leading up to the bombing suggest both the United States and the UK were expecting the attack, possibly because of the shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet by the US navy. There have been allegations the Iranian regime was behind the crime.

Suggestions have been made that certain people were warned against taking the flight, which, unusually for the Christmas period, was only one-third full. And questions have been asked to why high-ranking US officials missed the flight.

As for Megrahi's trial, critics have wondered why the CIA needed to pay its star witness Abdul Majid Giaka, $2.7 million (1.7m) to give evidence.

It has also been asked why the Scottish judges at Camp Zeist accepted part of the testimony of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who claimed he sold Megrahi the clothes found wrapped around the bomb, even though he admitted he could not definitely identify the suspect. Megrahi's lawyers claim Gauci was interviewed 17 times and gave a string of inconsistent statements.

Defence lawyers have also said they believe there are glaring gaps in the forensic analysis, including a lack of proper chemical analysis to determine whether a plastic fragment had survived an explosion.

Apart from the Iranians, the finger has also been pointed at Palestinian groups – the Frankfurt-based PFLP-GC and the lesser-known PPSF.

Relatives have said the timescale of the explosion – 38 minutes into the flight – was a hallmark of the type of bomb used by the PFLP-GC.

Edinburgh University professor Robert Black, who, along with Dr Swire, helped negotiate Megrahi's trial and believes there has been a miscarriage of justice, said there was "one fundamental question", adding: "What we need is why the wrong man was convicted."