Lockerbie deaths inquiry Lord Advocate challenged

THE father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has written to Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland criticising the investigation.

Dr Jim Swire disputes al Megrahi's guilt. Picture: Neil Hanna

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora, 23, was among 270 who died in the 1988 atrocity, has questioned the original and current inquiry.

The late Abdelbaset al Megrahi was the only person ever convicted of the terrorist attack.

Dr Swire believes the original prosecution was flawed, that key evidence was withheld from the defence team, and that the Crown Office has refused to reinvestigate new evidence which has since come to light.

In particular, he points to John Ashton’s book Megrahi: You Are My Jury, which argued that the timer used in the explosion could not have come from Libya.

“Why did you state there is no evidence to support the book’s claims?” Dr Swire wrote to Mr Mulholland.

“Why have the three witnesses who attest to point three above (about the timer) not been interviewed by the police?

“Do you consider that the Crown’s withholding of evidence favourable to Mr Megrahi, as documented by the SCCRC (Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission), is compatible with the United Nations International Association of Prosecutors’ standards of professional conduct?”

The letter coincides with the release of Mr Ashton’s new book Scotland’s shame: why Lockerbie still matters?