Undisclosed papers would have ‘destroyed’ Lockerbie bomber case, court told
The bombing of a Pan Am flight in 1988 which crashed onto a residential street in Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway killed 270 people in Britain’s largest terrorist attack.
The only person found guilty, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years in 2001 yet died in his home town after being released in 2012 on compassionate grounds.
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Hide AdA third appeal against his conviction began today at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Appeal judges heard shopkeeper Tony Gauci identified the late Megrahi as resembling the man who bought clothing in his shop – later found in a suitcase containing the bomb.
Appeal judges heard that documents revealed Mr Guaci’s frustration he would not be compensated for his part in the case.
The court was also told that there were inconsistencies in Mr Gauci’s evidence and he was told Megrahi would be in an identification parade.Gordon Jackson QC, of the Megrahi family’s legal team, argued if the defence team at the time had known about this they would have proven Mr Gauci expressed an “interest in receiving money” and challenged his credibility instead of taking a “softly, softly” approach.
Mr Jackson said: “It is fairly obvious, in my submission, that we would not then have the position that we’re in of him [Megrahi] being convicted.“There is no proper basis for having any credence or acceptance or reliability in that identification at all – that has a knock-on effect and destroys the whole case.”