American influence on Lockerbie trial

I WAS very interested in the letter from Tom Minogue because, like him, I have serious doubts about Lockerbie (19 July).

I am a retired journalist (and former Scotsman columnist) and, although I was born and educated in Edinburgh, I wrote on the Middle East for 30 years.

As Mr Minogue has pointed out, the United Nations-appointed independent observer to the trial at the Scots court in the Hague, Prof Hans Koechler, voiced his serious concerns that senior US Justice Department officials were in the body of the court and appeared to be directing the Crown Office prosecution staff.

This seems to confirm Lord Sutherland's judicial summation, for he pointed out that "there are undoubtedly problems. In relation to certain aspects of the case, there are a number of uncertainties and qualifications. In selecting parts of the evidence which seem to fit together and ignoring parts which might not fit, it is possible to read into a mass of evidence a pattern or conclusion which is not really justified."

It was also revealed by Geoff Simons, author of Libya and the West, that before the trial Tony Gauci was feted by the police, taken to Aviemore, taken fishing for salmon and put up at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow.

The judges were not told that, on the day of the bombing, there had been an unexplained break-in in the Heathrow baggage area.

Tony Gauci was the Maltese shopkeeper who became the chief witness in the case because a suitcase containing goods he stocked was suddenly "found" among the debris and, although as Gauci could not identify some of the clothing in the suitcase nor could he remember the "owner's" appearance it was decided that the clothing had been wrapped round the bomb (surely if that were true, it would have been destroyed) and so the owner of the suitcase was the bomber.

Megrahi had been about to appeal but was unable to because of being released on compassionate grounds. Gauci has apparently gone to Australia, "assisted" by the gift of a million dollars.

I could have understood all the pathetic lies if they had come from an American source, but surely the Scots have more sense than to believe the rubbish that we have heard.

MARION WOOLFSON

Nelson Street

Edinburgh

Nobody doubts that although the plane fell in Scotland, the target was the USA, and the greatest impact, and the greatest number of casualties, have been to the USA.

Of the 270 who died, 52 were UK citizens (including one crew member) and about 180 were from the USA.

The estimated population of Scotland in the same year was just under 5.1 million; the population of the USA in 1988, according to the US Census Bureau, was 245 million - 48 times the population of Scotland.

Eleven Scots died on the ground, and there may well have been some among the 51 UK citizens who died on the plane. This means that as a proportion of their respective populations, the Scottish loss was three times as great as the American one. Collateral damage?

On a separate point, the fact that a terminally ill man has lived longer than medically predicted will be familiar to most experienced doctors.

JOHN PATTERSON

Scotland Street

Edinburgh

You report (17 July) that Scotland's Justice Minister could be summoned to Washington DC to testify in the Megrahi case. This would surely place Kenny MacAskill in a dilemma, because what right has the US to summon a Scottish minister - even one in a devolved government?

It would seem not unlike Edward I summoning the Scottish king to London to pay homage - before Bannockburn of course.

JIM CRAIGEN

Downie Grove

Edinburgh