| The Sunday Times - Scotland The Sunday Times October 23, 2005 Fraser: my Lockerbie trial doubts Mark Macaskill ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1839307,00.html LORD Fraser of Carmyllie, the former lord advocate who issued the arrest warrant for the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has cast doubt on the reliability of the main witness in the trial. The former Conservative minister described Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper whose testimony was central in securing a conviction against Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, as "not quite the full shilling" and "an apple short of a picnic". Fraser, who as Scotland’s senior law officer was responsible for indicting Megrahi, says he is now not entirely happy with the evidence against Megrahi during his trial in 2001 and in his subsequent appeal. While making clear that this does not mean that he believes Megrahi was innocent of the 1988 atrocity, in which 270 people were killed, Fraser said he should be free to leave Scotland to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya. His intervention is the most significant yet in a series of developments that have cast doubt on the safety of the conviction against Megrahi. Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 after an explosion in the cargo hold. Megrahi was sentenced to 27 years following a trial presided over by three Scottish judges in the Netherlands. A condition of his sentence was that he served the full term in Scotland. His co- accused, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was cleared. Lawyers acting for the former intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines have since claimed to have uncovered anomalies suggesting that vital evidence presented at the trial came from tests conducted months after the terror attack. The new evidence is due to be presented in an appeal to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission next year. Earlier this month it was reported that officials from Britain, America and Libya had met to discuss moving Megrahi back to Libya on the condition that the appeal is dropped. A key plank in the case against Megrahi was provided by Gauci who claimed that he sold Megrahi clothes that were believed to have been wrapped around the bomb. Fraser said that he believes Gauci was a "weak point" in the case and has expressed concern that he was a "simple" man who might have been "easily led". "Gauci was not quite the full shilling. I think even his family would say (that he) was an apple short of a picnic. He was quite a tricky guy, I don’t think he was deliberately lying but if you asked him the same question three times he would just get irritated and refuse to answer," he said. "You do have to worry, he’s a slightly simple chap, are you putting words in his mouth even if you don’t intend to?" Fraser said he has been invited to Tripoli to meet Colonel Gadaffi after the Libyan leader learnt of his views but, so far, he has declined. "I wasn’t particularly impressed with his defence. Their techniques of muddle and confusion can work for a jury but it doesn’t work for three judges," he said. Fraser said he believes that Megrahi should now be free to return to his native Libya to see out the remainder of his sentence. "The transfer of prisoners is quite common but it’s important that you follow the rules of the transferring country. If he is transferred to any country I would expect him to serve out the sentence that the Scottish court imposed," Fraser said. William Taylor QC, the man who led Megrahi’s defence, said Fraser should never have presented Gauci as a crown witness: "A man who has a public office, who is prosecuting in the criminal courts in Scotland, has got a duty to put forward evidence based upon people he considers to be reliable." He was prepared to advance Gauci as a witness and, if he had these misgivings about him, they should have surfaced at the time. "The fact that he is now coming out many years later after my former client has been in prison for nearly 41/2 years is nothing short of disgraceful." Jim Swire, spokesman for the families of victims and who lost his daughter Flora in the atrocity, said: "Lord Fraser had detailed knowledge of events and I think we have to take seriously anything he says now that is relevant to those who gave evidence at Zeist. It is significant that a man who has been as close as he has to the investigation should be making comments like this." Gauci said; "I am not interested in what this man said. What matters to me is what the court said and that’s it. That’s all I have to say." All the members of Megrahi’s defence team were approached but have declined to comment. |
| The Sunday Times October 23, 2005 Focus: Was justice done? ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1839039,00.html A HUSH fell over the room as Lord Fraser of Carmyllie steeled himself for the most dramatic announcement of his life. In the august, dark wood-panelled rooms of the Crown Office in Edinburgh, the then Lord Advocate revealed the names of those accused of one of the world’s worst terrorist atrocities. Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, agents of the Libyan intelligence service, were wanted on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder for the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Dumfriesshire town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, with the loss of 270 lives. "Warrants have been issued," Fraser revealed to the world’s media packed into the cramped room. "The two accused should surrender themselves for trial." Fifteen years on, Fraser should be reflecting on the successful administration of justice. Following an unprecedented trial heard by three Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands, one of the two Libyans, Megrahi, is now languishing in a Scottish jail, serving a life sentence for the crime. His co-accused was cleared of involvement. As Scotland’s most senior legal officer when Megrahi was indicted, Fraser played a crucial role in bringing the Libyan to book. Yet he has now joined a growing number of people to voice disquiet about the legal proceedings which resulted in the subsequent conviction. Fraser’s apparent concern over the reliability of Tony Gauci, the principal witness in the trial upon whose evidence the case against Megrahi hung, follows a recent steady drip of “revelations” which have stoked the fires of conspiracy. That Megrahi’s appeal to the Scottish criminal cases review commission is imminent is perhaps no coincidence but some of the new evidence appears more compelling than that presented at his trial and subsequent appeal. The Crown’s case rested on a theory that the Lockerbie bomb was hidden inside a Toshiba radio-cassette player packed inside a Samsonite suitcase and wrapped in clothing. Fingertip searches of the crash site found remains of these items covered in explosive residue. Investigators claimed both the suitcase and clothing were linked to Megrahi. However, earlier this year a senior Scottish police officer, now retired, was reported to have accused American intelligence agents of planting a circuit board fragment, identified as part of a sophisticated explosive timing device made by Swiss firm Mebo and only supplied to Libya and the East German Stasi. The officer has given a statement to Megrahi’s lawyers. The commission will also be asked to consider the reliability of Allen Feraday, an expert forensic scientist who confirmed the circuit board fragment was part of a detonator. At least three other convictions in which Feraday gave evidence have been quashed. The commission will also be asked to consider apparent anomalies suggesting that forensic evidence presented by the Crown came from tests conducted months after the terror attack. To prove that the bomb was inside the case, investigators set off a series of explosions using an identical suitcase and contents to check how they would be damaged. Megrahi’s lawyers believe material produced during the tests was presented to the court as if it were the original suitcase. Earlier this month it was reported that the British, American and Libyan governments were negotiating the transfer of Megrahi to a prison in his home country on the condition that he drops his appeal. It was a proviso of his conviction that he serve his 27-year jail term in Scotland. Such a deal would suggest the British and American governments would prefer the case was not reopened, especially given that a successful appeal could sour their new détente with Libya and would prove highly embarrassing for the Scottish judicial system. Fraser’s intervention raises fresh questions about the reliability of evidence presented by Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who claimed he sold Megrahi the clothes that were wrapped around the bomb. Megrahi was charged following an international investigation co-ordinated by detectives from Dumfries and Galloway police. During their three-year investigation, and with help from police and intelligence forces around the world, they interviewed 15,000 witnesses, checked 20,000 names and analysed 180,000 pieces of evidence. They discovered Megrahi had travelled from Tripoli to Malta on December 20, the day the suitcase containing the bomb and clothing was believed to have taken the same route. It was subsequently packed onto a plane bound for Frankfurt and then Heathrow. "The Crown had a situation because it was quite clear Megrahi had travelled from Tripoli to Malta on the 20th and back on the 21st but they couldn’t establish what he had done in Malta or that he had done anything untoward," said a source who followed the case closely. In interviews with detectives Gauci repeatedly described the man who bought the clothes from his shop, Mary’s House, in the Maltese capital, Sliema, as 6ft tall and around 50 years old, while Megrahi is 5ft 8in tall and was 36 in 1988. Gauci also claimed that Megrahi stuck in his mind because he appeared to pay no attention to sizes. However Gauci also picked out Mohammed Abu Talb, a convicted terrorist, from a newspaper photograph, as the man who bought the clothes. Like Megrahi, Talb travelled to Malta late in 1988, close to the time when the clothing was purchased yet, despite the discrepancy, Gauci’s evidence was accepted by the trial judges. Fraser was a prominent Conservative figure in the 1980s and 1990s, appointed solicitor-general by Margaret Thatcher in 1982 and later made minister of state in the Scottish Office, where he served as health minister. Last year he was appointed by Jack McConnell to head an independent inquiry into the Holyrood parliament building debacle. As early as November 1991 Fraser publicly denied speculation that investigators into the Lockerbie bombing had been placed under political pressure not to implicate countries such as Syria and Iran. "Speculative pieces have come dismayingly close to impugning the integrity of the investigation which led to the issue of warrants," he said at the time, dismissing suggestions that the charges had been "restricted to meet what might be perceived as changing political expedience". He added: "The judicial process has begun and I insist, simply and bluntly, that these two men be brought to face trial." Among the theories which have competed with the explanation that Megrahi carried out the atrocity singlehandedly is that the bombers were agents of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command. Some even claim the attack was sponsored by Iran in revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner by the American warship USS Vincennes in July 1988 killing all 290 passengers and crew on board. William Taylor QC, Megrahi’s defence advocate, said Fraser’s latest comments are highly significant. "For the first time in my life I find myself in agreement with Lord Fraser," he said. "I’ve always held the opinion that Megrahi did not purchase clothing in Mary’s House." Without that there was insufficient evidence to convict him. "[Gauci] made so many errors between the descriptions he gave of the man who bought the clothing at the time and his identification some 14 years later. To say that the evidence could in any way, shape or form be relied upon struck me as being beyond belief." Tam Dalyell, the former Labour MP instrumental in organising the trial at Camp Zeist, described Fraser’s comments as an "extraordinary development". "I think there is an obligation for the chairman and members of the Scottish criminal review body to ask Lord Fraser to see them and testify under oath — it’s that serious," he said. “Fraser should have said this at the time and if not then, he was under a moral obligation to do so before the trial at Zeist. I think there will be all sorts of consequences.” Lisa Mosey, whose 19-year-old daughter, Helga, was one of the victims, said: "I think it’s an amazing thing for him to say. I’m surprised. "The trial of Megrahi did not convince us of his guilt, it left more questions than answers. I hope this encourages the commission to review Megrahi’s appeal." Professor Robert Black, emeritus professor of Scots law at Edinburgh university also believes Fraser’s apparent shift is important. "It’s very interesting that someone who was Lord Advocate, the man who, with the attorney-general of the United States, said ‘we know who did it’ is clearly less confident now than he was back then. I am always pleased at any sign of people coming round to the view of Lockerbie which I have held since the trial." Meanwhile in Greenock prison, as Megrahi whiles away the hours in his cell, where he is said to enjoy a range of perks including unlimited telephone calls and access to Arabic television, he may take some comfort from Lord Fraser’s comments. While Fraser is this weekend being criticised for failing to voice his concerns sooner, Megrahi, who faces at least another two decades in jail, can only wait and watch, and perhaps allow himself a small hope. The Libyan may even dare to believe that freedom is within his grasp. For those convinced of his innocence, justice may yet prevail. |
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The MEBO Inc.-defence team and Edwin Bollier, VR E-mail: mahnaz@bluewin.ch - URL: http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch C COPYRIGHT EDWIN & MAHNAZ BOLLIER-TAVAKOLI 8047 ZüRICH 14.JUNI 2005 MAHNAZ BOLLIER-TAVAKOLI, PRIVAT INVESTIGATOR, FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE E-mail: mahnaz@bluewin.ch - URL: http://www.lockerbie.ch |