Lockerbie conviction is upheld by review

A review of the Lockerbie bombing case by Scottish investigators has concluded that there is “not a shred of evidence” to support claims that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was wrongly convicted, The Times of London reported today.

Not only have investigators confirmed beyond doubt that the Libyan was the man responsible for the deaths of 270 people on December 21, 1988, they believe his fellow accused, Lamin Fhimah, who was acquitted, was almost certainly involved as well.

The findings will come as a blow to those, such as Jim Swire and Robert Black, QC, who maintain that prosecutors advanced a flawed case and that judges presided over a miscarriage of justice.

Ever since Megrahi was convicted in 2001 there have been allegations that evidence was manipulated to implicate Libya, steering suspicion away from Middle Eastern states.

Scottish prosecutors were accused of deliberately ignoring evidence that the bomb was put aboard Pan Am Flight 103 at Heathrow rather than at Malta, and that the timer fragment, the principal piece of forensic evidence against Libya, was planted or altered.

Sources close to the investigation said there was “not a shred of evidence” to suggest the prosecution got it wrong.

Set against the speculation are facts that have never been disproved: the presence of Megrahi in Malta, carrying a false passport, on the day the prosecution says the bomb went on board flight KM180 to Frankfurt; Fhimah arriving with him; and their subsequent telephone conversations.

Investigators confirmed beyond doubt that Megrahi was the man responsible and that Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, his fellow accused, who was acquitted at their trial, was almost certainly also involved.

The claims have been examined in detail in the course of the investigation into the bomb plot by the Crown Office and Police Scotland, who have been working on the case with the FBI to identify others who were involved in the bombing. This has included several trips to Libya.

Critics have argued that, because there is no direct evidence to show that the bomb was inserted at Luqa airport in Malta, the more likely theory is that it was loaded on at Heathrow. A broken padlock found on a security gate during a critical period on the night before the bombing is said to be persuasive evidence that this is when the bomb was inserted into the system.

However, sources close to the investigation are now adamant that the timetable of events is against it.

The security gap was between 22.05 on December 20, 1988, and 00.30 on December 21, when Raymond Manly, a security guard, found the broken padlock. Another 13½ hours were to go by before the loading of a container with luggage for Pan Am 103 began. It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for a suspect bag to remain undetected and there is no evidence to show that it did.

On the other hand, evidence that it was inserted in Malta is far stronger. While there is no direct proof of a suspect suitcase being loaded at Luqa, computer records at Frankfurt show that the flight from Malta was carrying a bag that was unaccounted for, which was then loaded on to the connecting flight to Heathrow. That evidence has stood up to detailed scrutiny ever since.

The bags of every passenger on KM180 from Malta that day were traced back to their owners. Just one remained unaccounted for. Documentary and computer evidence, recovered by the German police at Frankfurt airport, established that the unaccompanied bag was processed at station 206 in Area V3 at Frankfurt and sent to gate B044 to be transferred on to Pan Am 103A, the feeder flight from Frankfurt to London.

The unexplained presence of al-Megrahi himself in Malta on the day the prosecution say the bomb went on board KM 180 to Frankfurt, arriving from Tripoli on December 20, the day before the bombing, carrying a false passport in the name of Ahmed Khalifa Abdusamad.

Fhimah, his co-accused, the former Libyan Arab Airlines station manager at Luqa, was on the same flight. The next day al-Megrahi, from his hotel room in Malta, called Fhimah at his home.

The following morning “Abdusamad” was checked in on Libyan Arab Airlines flight LN147 back to Tripoli. So al-Megrahi was at Luqa airport just as KM180 was checking in. By the time the bomb arrived at Frankfurt, he was back at home.

No explanation for the false passport was given, although many years later al-Megrahi was to claim that he was on a sanctions-busting trip. However, he never used the passport again.

“These inconvenient truths have never been properly addressed or explained by those who claim that the Libyan bomber was wrongly convicted. They say that the Scottish judicial system has much to answer for. The fact is that their speculation must be tested against the hard logic of evidence,” The Times reported.