LOCKERBIE CONVICTION

RMTnews :: december 2005 32 A s the Scottish Socialist Party’s Justice spokesperson, I have studied many aspects of Scotland’s Criminal Justice system at close quarters. I have come to recognise that much of it is progressive and that there are many people working hard to modernise and improve it so that it better serves the ends of justice for everyone. But there is one case which may well be about to blow the reputation of the Scottish legal system to kingdom come and it concerns the conviction of our most high profile prisoner. Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi, otherwise known as the Lockerbie bomber, is serving 28 years in Greenock gaol. I have just finished reading John Pilger’s latest book ‘Tell Me No Lies’ which I can thoroughly recommend. It contains a chapter written by the late Paul Foot about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. No sooner had I finished reading it than the Scottish press were full of fresh stories regarding the case. Firstly a Former Lord Advocate – Scotland’s chief prosecutor – Lord Fraser, cast doubt over the reliability of one crowns key witnesses. Fraser now believes the credibility of the Maltese shopkeeper alleged to have sold Al Megrahi clothes subsequently found in the wreckage of the Pan Am flight, to be highly questionable. He describes him as ‘not the full shilling’ and a man who was easily led. For a former Lord Advocate to raise such questions is highly unusual and has forced the current Lord Advocate to make a statement to Parliament just weeks before Megrahi’s conviction is reconsidered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. Speculation is now also rife that a deal has been done between the UK and Libyan governments to have Al Megrahi serve the remainder of his 28 years sentence in a North African prison to be nearer his family. Many see this transfer as a prelude to his imminent release and return to Libya and a hero’s welcome. Why a hero’s welcome? The Libyan’s never accepted the case against Al Megrahi. And they were not the only ones. The conviction took the many legal commentators who had sat through the months of evidence at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands completely by surprise. Many of them believed the real culprits were not in the dock, that Megrahi was a patsy, a pawn in a hideous game of international espionage and diplomacy. This view, shared by Paul Foot, suggested the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988 was in fact carried out under instructions from the Iranian government as a reprisal for the shooting down of one of their civilian airliners by an American warship some months beforehand. A group known as the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command [PFLP-GC] working for the Iranian and Syrian governments were the original chief suspects in the killing of some 270 people. But the international geopolitics of the1991 Gulf War meant that the US AND UK governments needed to enlist the support of both Iran and Syria in the fight against Saddam Hussein and so they switched their line of attack towards an altogether more convenient target, Libya. The next few months look certain to see some startling new developments and bring to the fore once again a case which casts an ominous dark shadow over the Scottish Criminal Justice system. And will pose once again some very serious political questions indeed about justice and the state. Colin Fox, Scottish Socialist Party Convenor LOCKERBIE CONVICTION RE-EXAMINED