UK NEWS

LOCKERBIE: THE FACTS

The plane was reconstructed by detectives

Friday August 14,2009

SINCE PanAm flight 103 blew up 35 minutes into its journey from Heathrow to New York, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, the case has been plagued by conspiracy theories. ROD MILLS examines the case against Abdel Baset Ali Al Megrahi.

Who was behind the Lockerbie bombing?

The inquiry first appeared to point towards the Palestinian terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), funded by Iran and Syria.

Then in 1990 the focus suddenly switched to Libya, beginning the path to the trial of Al Megrahi.

What was the evidence against him?

The main prosecution witness was Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who named Megrahi as buying clothes two weeks before the bombing, including a grey shirt experts said almost certainly wrapped the bomb.

Embedded in the collar was a tiny piece of circuit board from a timer made by the Swiss electronics firm Mebo, based in Zurich, where the Libyan had been a frequent customer.

Why is his conviction now in doubt?

Megrahi has always said he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Last December, The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said there were six points of concern, mainly relating to Gauci‘s evidence.

Gauci never gave a categorical identification of Megrahi. At one point, it has been claimed, he identified the mysterious shopper from a photograph of Abu Talb, leader of the PFLP-GC. The commission said evidence indicated the clothing was bought prior to December 7, the only date Megrahi could have done it.

Also, his defence team was never told that Mr Gauci saw a photograph of Megrahi in a magazine article linking him to the bombing, four days before picking him out in an ID parade. There have been suggestions that Mr Gauci was pressurised by the police.

If al-Megrahi is cleared, will the victims’ families have to pay back the compensation money to Libya?

It is likely Libya would begin legal proceedings to have the £1.4 billion it paid out in compensation returned if he is acquitted, but the Scottish justice system would be more likely to be liable for it than the families.

Who else could have been responsible for the bombing?

Evidence points towards Abu Talb, who is serving life in a Swedish prison on an unrelated terror charge. That would suggest that the bombing was commissioned by Iran, perhaps in revenge for the accidental shooting down of a planeload of Iranian pilgrims by the USS Vincennes in July 1988.

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