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Ireland
1 Switzerland 0
Christian Holland finds that Switzerland
in the Med is an Irish joke |
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opinion
Is
it a Frame Up?
As
the Lockerbie trial nears its end, Jesmond Saliba expresses
his hope that Malta's name will finally be cleared
For the last 10 years, Malta's name was attached to one of the
worst and most controversial terrorist acts.
This week, the Scottish Court in Camp Zeist resumed the hearing
of the Lockerbie trial. I had the opportunity to interview journalist,
Joe Mifsud, who recently published a book about the whole case.
Mr Mifsud, together with the late Dr Edgar Mizzi and late Prof.
Buontempo, worked hard in various ways to clear Malta's name from
any blame, which we were labelled with.
On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the quiet Scottish village of Lockerbie
hit the headlines in the most tragic way.
It was 07.03 GMT when a Boeing 747 airliner owned and operated
by Pan American World Airlines exploded shortly after leaving
Heathrow, with JFK airport as its final destination. But it never
got there, instead it exploded over the little village, due to
what seemed at first to be a technical fault but later emerged
as a terrorist act.
The 243 passengers aboard the aircraft died. Eleven people living
in Lockerbie were also killed as the debris of the explosion completely
demolished three houses.
Prior to the Gulf War, the investigators attributed the responsibility
to a Palestinian Group, which, according to the same theory, was
commissioned to carry out the act by its Iranian Spiritual Leader.
After the Gulf War, two Libyan nationals, Abd al-Basit Al-Megrahi,
a senior Libyan intelligence official, and Lamen Fhimah, the former
manager of the Libyan Arab Airlines office of Malta, became suspects.
According to the prosecutors, there was clear evidence that Al-Megrahi,
Fhimah, and other unidentified co-conspirators, planned to bomb
Pan Am 103.
What is the main evidence for this theory? It seems that in an
area of 845 square miles combed of debris, there was a tag belonging
to some items made in Malta, allegedly attached to the bomb, which
caused the tragedy.
Besides that, Mr T. Gauci, one of the main witnesses, is also
claiming that he sold these articles to someone who looked like
one of the accused. Hence the prosecutors were claiming that the
bomb left Malta, even though, however, Mr Gauci's account of facts
has differed 30 times. In his well-documented book, Mr Mifsud
points out that there was no unaccompanied luggage on the Air
Malta flight KM 180 to Frankfurt, since the only unaccompanied
luggage was put off at Heathrow airport.
There were a lot of holes in the entire process of the compilation
of evidence and testimony of the witnesses. Even the chief prosecuting
officer admitted this. He claimed that The Crown has proved the
case against each of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
"Your lordships will require to be satisfied of guilt beyond
reasonable doubt. Mathematical certainty is neither necessary
nor achievable."
At the time of writing this article it is predicted that the verdict
will be reached in the next few weeks. One hopes that the final
verdict will erase all blame put on Malta. Our small island suffered
greatly from what could be construed as a conspiracy from two
large countries – Britain and Germany. We should remember
that both countries failed to check the named luggage too. Now
if one of them proved to be the guilty party…
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