Lockerbie bombing: Megrahi family appeal set for November

A full appeal hearing by the family of the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has been scheduled for later this year.

The former Libyan intelligence officer was found guilty of mass murder in 2001 and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.

The relatives of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi have requested a posthumous appeal against his conviction for the 1988 atrocity, which claimed the lives of 270 people.

Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. He died eight years ago aged 60, three years after being released on compassionate grounds.

At a procedural hearing yesterday, Lord Carloway set a provisional date of 23 November for the full hearing to begin. It will be heard by five senior appeal court judges.

Lawyers for the Megrahi family told the online hearing - conducted via videoconferencing - that it was "in the interest of justice" that they were given access to two documents held by the UK government, but which are covered by a public interest immunity certificate.

Claire Mitchell QC said the documents should be disclosed in light of the “passage of time,” and argued the public interest immunity claimed in 2008 “shoudl not be held to apply” 12 years on.

She added: "The information contained within the undisclosed documents must relate to events or actions that occurred prior to the 21st December 1988, that is the documents must relate to events or actions that occurred at least 32 years ago and it is respectfully submitted that given such a lapse it is also in the interest of justice that disclosure is made in respect of these matters."

Ian Duguid QC, representing the Advocate General, said the secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs continues to assert public interest immunity over the two protected documents.

He said the secretary of state has given consideration to the argument over the passage of time and has lodged an updated public interest immunity certificate with the clerk of court, dated August 2020. Mr Duguid said the validity of the certificate would need to be considered at a court hearing.

Speaking afterwards, Aamer Anwar, the Megrahi family’s lawyer, said it was “disappointing” that Dominic Raab had lodged the certificate, stressing that more than three decades after the bombing, “the UK government still refuse to declassify documents that we believe indicate a miscarriage of justice.”

He added: “Many of the families have asked whose public interest is being protected.”

Elsewhere, as part of a series of submissions setting out the grounds for the appeal, Ms Mitchell also said there had been a "systemic failure of disclosure" on the part of the Crown over a range of other documents.

She added: "Looked at in the round, the question is whether or not there was a miscarriage of justice because that trial wasn't fair because the failure to disclose was just systemic."

However, advocate depute Ronald Clancy QC said the Crown had gone out of its way to be "transparent" and provide material, and that part of the problem with the systemic failure argument is that no attempt was made to define what the proper system should have been at the time.

It comes after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) decided in March that Megrahi’s case should be referred to the High Court following an application by Mr Anwar in July 2017.

The SCCRC concluded that the wrong verdict may have been reached because no reasonable trial court, relying on the evidence at trial, could have held that the case against Megrahi was proved beyond reasonable doubt.

It said that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred by reason of "unreasonable verdict" and "non-disclosure,” but rejected four other possible grounds of review.

The procedural hearing was heard by three of Scotland’s most senior judges - Lord Carloway, the Lord President, Lady Dorrian, the Lord Chief Justice Clerk, and Lord Menzies. The three judges will issue written decisions about the submissions at a later date.

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