[A-List] Lockerbie verdict

[Keaney Michael]

I've always been impressed by Jim Swire, whose leadership of the UK Lockerbie families was very quiet, understated and yet determined. Unlike many portrayals in the mainstream news media, including, of course, BBC World last week, Swire has not swallowed the line about a Libyan plot, but rather has stuck to the original hypothesis concerning a joint Iranian-Syrian conspiracy involving the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. When, in 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, expediency ruled that the "coalition" against Saddam include such neighbouring countries as Syria and Iran. A convenient bogey in the shape of Colonel Gaddafi appeared as if on cue, and suddenly evidence was found unmistakeably linking Tripoli with the disaster. Meanwhile investigative journalists including Paul Foot and his team at Private Eye have uncovered conflicting evidence which suggests the original hypothesis was stronger, together with more evidence of an orchestrated cover-up and stitch-up. Now, in the aftermath of the failed appeal of Megrahi, Swire is again voicing doubts about the whole thing. This contrasts markedly with the very pointed expressions of relief and closure at the verdict by "leaders" of the US families, who, inevitably, are regretting the absence of the death penalty in the UK.


Swire fears miscarriage of justice

VICKY COLLINS
The Herald, 18 March 2002

      BRITISH relatives of the Lockerbie victims said
      yesterday that they believed judges jailed the wrong
      man. 

      Jim Swire, who lost his daughter, Flora, in the 1988
      disaster, said "We think there has been a
      miscarriage of justice. Thank God that Britain
      doesn't have the death penalty."

      Dr Swire said that many of the relatives felt that
      Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi was not the man
      responsible. 

      "We think that the judges were excellent and the
      prosecution was very good, but that the defence
      was very poor," he said.

      At a meeting of UK Families Flight 103, a support
      group set up after the disaster, members yesterday
      decided not to pursue the criminal case into
      responsibility for the disaster any further.

      Instead, the relatives agreed to concentrate on
      setting up an independent public inquiry to find out if
      the bombing could have been prevented.

      Dr Swire said: "I do feel that we are now a spent
      force as regards the criminal process. If this is to
      be taken any further, then it will have to be done by
      the lawyers."

      Last Thursday, Megrahi, 49, lost his appeal against
      the 2001 conviction that found him responsible for
      the bomb that brought down PanAm flight 103,
      killing 270 people. 

      Dr Swire said that the priority now was to hold Tony
      Blair, the prime minister, to a promise made to
      victims' relatives that there would be a public
      inquiry once the criminal case had finished. He
      said: "We have to have an inquiry that has real
      authority to insist that its recommendations are
      acted upon, otherwise we feel that there could be
      another air disaster many times worse than
      Lockerbie or even September 11."

      In Libya, thousands of demonstrators took to the
      streets yesterday to protest against Megrahi's
      conviction.

      Surrounded by anti-riot police, the demonstrators
      gathered in front of the United Nations office in
      Tripoli, the capital, and, in a statement handed to a
      UN representative, called on the international body
      to, "interfere to save the political hostage
      Abdelbaset al Megrahi".

      "The sentence contradicts international laws as it
      was handed as a result of political pressure aimed
      at settling accounts with the Libyan revolution," the
      statement said.

      The Libyan government has described the
      unanimous decision by the five judges at Camp
      Zeist, in the Netherlands, as a "political verdict" and
      has promised to continue efforts to free Megrahi.
      On Thursday, security surrounding some foreign
      embassies and UN offices in Tripoli was
      heightened in anticipation of violent protests similar
      to those of last year, when Megrahi was convicted.

      Megrahi was found guilty of loading an
      unaccompanied suitcase bomb in Malta that was
      later transferred on to PanAm Flight 103, which
      exploded en route from London to New York.
      Following the failure of Megrahi's appeal, the Libyan
      government said it would take the case to the
      highest legal bodies, the House of Lords and the
      European Court of Human Rights.

      Libya's foreign ministry has also demanded an
      immediate lifting of UN sanctions imposed on the
      north African country and compensation for
      financial and human damages they have caused.

      Sanctions against Libya were suspended, but not
      lifted, in 1999 after Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan
      leader, turned over Megrahi and his alleged
      accomplice, Al Amin Khalifa Fhima - later acquitted
      - to the court.

      The US applies its own sanctions against Libya.

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/18-3-19102-0-10-31.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney at mbs.fi