Was Freed Lockerbie Bomber a Patsy?

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Wat zou ons nou de rechtspleging voor Lybiers kunnen schelen?

Groet / Cees

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/08/20/was-freed-lockerbie-bomber-a-patsy.html

August 20, 2009 03:22 PM ET | Robert Schlesinger | Permanent Link | Print

Scotland today released terminally ill Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the man
convicted of blowing up Pan Am 103 on December 21, 1988. The decision was
made on the grounds of compassion—let him see his homeland one more time
before he shuffles off this mortal coil. And not surprisingly the move has
spurred howls of outrage (why should he get more compassion than the 270
people killed in that terrorist attack?).

But there are some who believe that al-Megrahi should never have been
convicted in the first place, that he was, to use the Lee Harvey
Oswald-ism, a patsy. Journalist Nathan Thrall laid out the case here in
January, a few days after the 20th anniversary of the bombing. He wrote:

    An official Scottish review body has declared that a "miscarriage of
justice may have occurred" in the conviction of the Libyan
intelligence officer, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The reviewers examined a
secret document, provided to the United Kingdom by a foreign
government and seen during Megrahi's trial by only the prosecution,
that they said cast serious doubts on Megrahi's guilt. A new appeal of
Megrahi's conviction is scheduled for this coming spring. The U.N.
special observer appointed by Kofi Annan to Megrahi's trial, Hans
Koechler, has declared that Megrahi was wrongfully convicted, as have
the legal architect of his special trial, Prof. Robert Black, and a
spokesperson for the families of the British victims, Jim Swire.

He lists other problems with the prosecutions' case and notes that high
ranking Libyans have pooh-poohed the admission of guilt, saying that they
were buying peace and that was the cost. Thrall suggests Iran might truly
have been behind the bombing. Who's right? In all likelihood, questions
about the Lockerbie bombing will take their place in the ranks of numerous
other American conspiracy theories.

Reader Comments
Read all 1 comments about this article
David of MD Aug 21, 2009 00:26:43 AM

I am concerned that there is a growing amount of evidence that Megrahi's
claims that he was railroaded in this trial are true and that there is
(was) a significant chance that he could win his next appeal. I also know
that Scottish prisons are hell holes and the Scots do NOT have a
reputation for being soft on any criminals, but there are a growing number
of Brits who are highly sceptical of the legal quality of this trial,most
importantly some of the victims families.

What I fear is happening is that this is not really a compassion issue but
is a back door manouver and trade-off by the British government, to avoid
the growing possibility that Megrahi may win his next appeal. The Libyans
have stated officially that if Megrahi is found not guilty on appeal, they
would consider taking legal steps to recover the $2bn reparation paid to
victims families. In general terrorists don't offer to recompense their
victims financially, so it remains to be determined why they really paid
this reparation!!! Another legal fight like this would be disastrous and
an unbearable additional suffering to the families.

I am also staggered that the authorities eliminated Iran as a suspect in
this case. After 1979, Iran had made public statements that they would
engage in terrorist attacks against the West, in particular the US. The
Iranians were radical Islamic Fundamentalists, the Libyans were not. The
US had supported Iraq in the Iraq/Iran war and the US had blocked the UN
security council from condemning Iraq for using weapons of mass
destruction against the Kurds ( which Bush later used as a justification
for invading Iraq.) And 6 months later the US shot down an Iranian
commercial Airbus jet slaughtering all 290 innocent people on board. This
is a much greater provocation and probable cause than the relatively
smaller skirmishes that were going on between Libya and the US.

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