Lawyers for the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing have told the Scottish appeal court sitting in Holland that eye-witness evidence key to the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi is flawed and that new evidence has come to light undermining the prosecution case.
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Lawyer William Taylor addresses court in Holland before his client Abdel Basset al-Megrahi (R) at the opening of today’s appeal. Photography: Reuters
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Al Megrahi is attempting to overturn his conviction and life sentence for carrying out the December 1988 atrocity, in which 270 people died.
His defence argues that the case was a miscarriage of justice as the three judges at the original trial effectively misdirected themselves as jurors.
The appeal case rests on two areas of evidence on which Al Megrahi's lawyers claim the original court was mistaken in its finding.
In the first instance, the defence says the court was wrong to rely on the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who said Al Megrahi bought the clothes which were wrapped around the bomb at his shop.
The judges ruled that Mr Gauci's evidence was enough to prove that the bomb had been placed on a plane at Malta and travelled via Frankfurt to Heathrow, where it was loaded onto Pan Am flight 103.
The defence also claims, in its second line of appeal, that that ruling was mistaken and wants to bring fresh evidence to support its contention that the bomb began its journey at Heathrow.
Here are some extracts from the grounds for appeal:
- A1. The court erred in finding that the date of the purchase of the clothes from the shop at Mary's House, 63 Tower Street, Sliema, Malta, was December 7 1988.
There was no proper basis on the evidence for the finding that the date of the purchase of the clothes was either November 23 or December 7 1988.
- A4. The court failed to advance adequate reasons for preferring Gauci's identification of the appellant by resemblance of a photo, at identification parade and in court, to earlier descriptions of the purchaser which did not match the appellant.
- A5. The court failed to deal with and resolve the contradictions and inconsistencies in the evidence of Gauci regarding the date of the purchase and the identity of the purchaser.
- A6. The evidence of identification was not of such character, quality or strength to justify a finding that the appellant was the clothes buyer. The court failed properly to take account of the significant body of evidence referred to above which pointed away from December 7 as the date of purchase.
- B1. The court misdirected itself as to the accuracy of the records from Frankfurt Airport from which it found that an inference could be drawn that an unaccompanied bag travelled on KM 180 from Luqa airport to Frankfurt and was there loaded on to PA103A.
- B4. The documents and other evidence from Frankfurt, properly construed, were not of sufficient strength, quality or character to enable the court to conclude that an unaccompanied bag from KM 180 was transferred to and loaded on to PA103A.
- B10. The court failed to take account of the defence submission that the fact that the primary suitcase was located at or near to the optimum position to achieve its destructive purpose gave rise to an inference that the device was ingested at Heathrow airport.
- B11. There exists significant evidence which was not heard at the trial ... It demonstrates that at some time in the two hours before 12.35am on December 21 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access to airside in Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport, near to the area referred to in the trial as the 'baggage build up area'.
Had this evidence been available at the trial it would have supported the body of evidence suggestive of the bomb having been infiltrated at Heathrow.
The hearing is set to make history as the first Scottish proceedings to be broadcast live on the Internet after a bid by the BBC to broadcast proceedings succeeded earlier this month.
TV footage will also be used in news bulletins by the BBC and Scottish Television, although broadcasters will be subject to a number of restrictions including a ban on televising evidence from witnesses.
PA