Lockerbie 2006

By Marcello Mega

DRAMATIC new evidence could
free the Libyan convicted of the
Lockerbie bombing.

Defence experts have simulated the
explosion that brought down Pan Am
Flight 103 in December 1988.

The results suggested the device which
detonated the Semtex bomb that
destroyed the jumbo jet could not have
survived the explosion.

A fragment of circuit board from the
bomb was the crucial piece of evidence
that secured the conviction of Abdelbaset
Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi. He is now serv-
ing 27 years for mass murder.

Sources close to Megrahi's lawyers said
the new tests pointed to the evidence hav-
ing been planted at the scene of the crash.

They claim the entire case against him
is unravelling as they prepare to appeal
his conviction.

One said: 'His team can now demon-
strate how investigators began with the
solution they wanted to arrive at, Libyan
responsibility, and worked backwards to
construct a case that fitted.'

The source added that Megrahi's
legal team claimed they had obtained
'clear proof that investigators had
'planted and manipulated' evidence.

He said: 'There is little doubt now
that Megrahi will be granted a fresh
appeal, that his conviction will be
quashed and, if there is any justice in
Scotland, that certain Scottish police
officers will be jailed for their part in
the proceedings.'

Megrahi's lawyers already have a
sworn statement from a retired

'Case against him
is unravelling'

TECHNICAL EVIDENCE: Reconstructions and exhibits from Megrahi's trial. The circled piece
of debris, above right, was identified as a circuit board fragment from a Mebo MST13 timer

Scottish police officer confirm-
ing that evidence had been
planted to secure the Libyan's
conviction. A similar claim was
made by a former CIA agent.

The new forensic tests were
carried out on behalf of Megrahi's
lawyers at a secret European
location only a few weeks ago in
the presence of leading
explosives experts.

The source said: 'A number of
explosions were carried out in a
controlled environment repli-
cating the circumstances of the
Lockerbie bomb, with 300g of
Semtex and a timing mecha-
nism within radio-cassette
recorders. Each time, scientists
confirmed nothing remained of
the timing devices or the plastic
components of the radios. They
were completely vaporised.

'This begs the question: how
did the crucial fragment survive
on December 21,1988?'

His legal team will now claim
the tests prove that the piece
produced for Megrahi's trial
must have been planted.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001
of the murders of 270 people.
His co-accused, Al Amin
Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted.

An appeal was dismissed and
Megrahi was sentenced to life,

with a minimum term of 27
years. He is currently held in
Greenock Prison.

Following his failed appeal,
Megrahi sacked his legal team
and instructed new lawyers.

In 2003, they took his case to
the Scottish Criminal Cases
Review Commission (SCCRC)
which can order fresh appeals.
They outlined the claims of the
ex-CIA man that the fragment of
circuit board had been planted
under orders from a very high
level in the organisation.

The fragment was found by
two policemen during a search
of a wood near Newcastleton, 35
miles from Lockerbie.

It was later identified by the
ClA's Thomas Thurman as being
part of a sophisticated timer
device made by Swiss firm
Mebo. Thurman was later
unmasked as a fraud who had
given false evidence in Ameri-
can murder trials.

But his identification of the
fragment led investigators to
Mebo's Zurich HQ and the dis-
covery that the MST13 timers
had been supplied only to Libya
and the East German Stasi.

The SCCRC is expected to
announce a decision in May, but

Megrahi's team is so confident
the case will be returned to the
Appeal Court it is working flat
out on the conduct of that appeal.

A well-placed source said: 'I
have never seen such a convinc-
ing argument for a conviction
being quashed. Even before the
explosives tests totally destroyed
the key plank of the Crown's
case, all the supporting pillars
had already been demolished.

'Megrahi's team have first-

'US authorities
wrote the script'

hand eye-witness accounts of
how the case was put together
and who did what. The US
authorities wrote the script, but
UK investigators became heav-
ily involved. Some should go to
jail for what they have done.
One officer in particular will do
well to avoid prison.

'Not only has Megrahi been
wrongfully convicted and taken
away from his home and family,
but those who loved the 270 vic-
tims have been treated with dis-
dain. They have been presented

with a fabricated case and
denied true justice.'

Many, including Dr Jim Swire,
who lost his daughter Flora in
the bombing, believe the Popu-
lar Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command
(PFLP-GC) - were responsible.

US Defence Intelligence
Agency documents dated 1994,
more than two years after the
two Libyans were identified to
the world as the suspects, still
described the PFLP-GC as the
Lockerbie bombers.

One prominent legal source
said: 'Britain and the US were
telling the world it was Libya,
but in their private communica-
tions they acknowledged that
they knew it was the PFLP-GC.

'The case has unravelled
largely because when they
wrote the script, they never
expected to have to act it out.

'Nobody expected agreement
for a trial to be reached, but it
was, and in preparing a manufac-
tured case, mistakes were made.

'Megrahi's first legal team did
not exploit those mistakes, but
his current team are picking
them off one by one. This will be
revealed as the most gross mis-
carriage of justice of all time.'