Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi (Arabic: عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي) (born 1 April 1952) is a former Libyan intelligence officer, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya. On 31 January 2001, he was convicted, by a panel of Scottish Judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, of 270 counts of murder for his part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988. Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has always maintained his innocence and, following the rejection of his first appeal in 2002, was granted leave in 2007 for a second appeal against conviction. He was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government on 20 August 2009.

His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah was found not guilty and was acquitted.

Background

In November 1991, Megrahi and Fhimah were indicted by the US Attorney General and the Scottish Lord Advocate for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Libya refused to extradite the two accused, but held them under house arrest in Tripoli.

Seven years after the 1988 attack, as United States fugitives from justice, on 23 March 1995 he and Fhimah were each listed as the 441st and 442nd additions to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, which offered a $4 million reward from the U.S. Air Line Pilots Association, Air Transport Association, and Department of State, and $50,000 from the FBI, for information leading to their arrest. Protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, and the imposition of United Nations economic sanctions against Libya eventually brought the two accused to trial in a neutral country (see Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial). Finally, eleven years after the bombing, Megrahi and Fhimah were placed under arrest at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands on April 5 1999.

Convicted

Megrahi's appeal against his conviction at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in January 2001 was refused on 14 March 2002 by a panel of five Scottish Judges at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. According to a report by the BBC, Dr Hans Köchler, one of the UN observers at the trial, expressed serious doubts about the fairness of the proceedings and spoke of a "spectacular miscarriage of justice".

On 24 November 2003 Megrahi appeared at the High Court in Glasgow, in front of the three Judges who originally sentenced him at Camp Zeist, to learn that he would have to serve at least 27 years in jail – back-dated to April 1999 when he was extradited from Libya – before he could be considered for parole. This court hearing was the result of the incorporation into Scots law of the European Convention of Human Rights in 2001, nine months after Megrahi's sentence was imposed, which required him to be told the extent of the "punishment part" of his life term. On 31 May 2004 he was granted leave to appeal against his 27-year sentence. The appeal against sentence was scheduled to be heard in Edinburgh by a panel of five Judges on 11 July 2006. However, the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal decided to postpone the July hearing to allow consideration of whether the appeal against sentence ought to be heard at Camp Zeist rather than in Edinburgh.

Review

On 23 September 2003 lawyers acting for Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) for a review of the case (both sentence and conviction), arguing that there had been a miscarriage of justice. On 1 November 2006 Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist. In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper of 31 January 2006, retired Scottish Judge Lord MacLean – one of the three who convicted Megrahi in 2001 – said he believed the SCCRC would return the case for a further appeal against conviction:

"They can't be working for two years without producing something with which to go to the court."

MacLean added that any new appeal would indicate the flexibility of Scots law, rather than a weakness:

"It might even be the strength of the system – it is capable of looking at itself subsequently and determining a ground for appeal."

In January 2007, the SCCRC announced that it would issue its decision on Megrahi's case by the end of June 2007. On 9 June 2007 rumours of a possible prisoner swap deal involving Megrahi were strenuously denied by prime minister, Tony Blair. Later in June, The Observer confirmed the imminence of the SCCRC ruling and reported:

"Abdelbaset al-Megrahi never wavered in his denial of causing the Lockerbie disaster: now Scottish legal experts say they believe him."

Second appeal

On 28 June 2007 the SCCRC concluded its four-year review and, having uncovered evidence that a miscarriage of justice could have occurred, the Commission granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his Lockerbie bombing conviction for a second time. The second appeal at the Court of Criminal Appeal was abandoned in August 2009.

New information casting fresh doubts about Megrahi's conviction was examined at a procedural hearing at the Judicial Appeal Court (Court of Session building) in Edinburgh on 11 October 2007:

1. His lawyers claim that vital documents, which emanate from the CIA and relate to the Mebo timer that allegedly detonated the Lockerbie bomb, were withheld from the trial defence team.
2. Tony Gauci, chief prosecution witness at the trial, is alleged to have been paid $2 million for testifying against Megrahi.
3. Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, has claimed that in 1991 the FBI offered him $4 million to testify that the timer fragment found near the scene of the crash was part of a Mebo MST-13 timer supplied to Libya.
4. Former employee of Mebo, Ulrich Lumpert, swore an affidavit in July 2007 that he had stolen a prototype MST-13 timer in 1989, and had handed it over to "a person officially investigating the Lockerbie case".

On 1 November 2007 Megrahi invited Robert Black to visit him at Her Majesty's Prison, Greenock. After a 2-hour meeting, Black stated "that not only was there a wrongful conviction, but the victim of it was an innocent man. Lawyers, and I hope others, will appreciate this distinction."

Prior to Megrahi's second appeal, another four procedural hearings in the Edinburgh Appeal Court were scheduled to have been heard between December 2007 and June 2008

In the June 2008 edition of the Scottish lawyers' magazine The Firm, the UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial, Professor Hans Köchler, referred to the 'totalitarian' nature of Megrahi's second appeal process saying it "bears the hallmarks of an 'intelligence operation'." Pointing out an error on the FCO's website and accusing the British government of "delaying tactics" in relation to Megrahi's second Lockerbie appeal, UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial Dr Hans Köchler wrote to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 21 July 2008 saying:

As international observer, appointed by the United Nations, at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national. Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Mr. Al-Megrahi’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary. The Appeal cannot go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom, through the PII certificate issued by you, denies the Defence the right (also guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution. How can there be equality of arms in such a situation? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way?

The FCO corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008:

"Ultimately, it will be for the Court to decide whether the material should be disclosed, not the Foreign Secretary."

On 15 October 2008, five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown that the scope of Megrahi's second appeal should be limited to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007.

In January 2009, it was reported that, although Megrahi's second appeal against conviction is scheduled to begin on 27 April 2009, the hearing could last as long as 12 months because of the complexity of the case and volume of material to be examined. At a preliminary High Court hearing in Edinburgh on 20 February 2009, Megrahi's lawyer, Maggie Scott QC, was informed that a delegation from the Scottish Crown is due to travel to Malta to "actively seek the consent for disclosure" of sensitive documents that could determine the outcome of his second appeal.

Scottish ministers denied in April 2009 they had clandestinely agreed to the repatriation of Megrahi before the start of his second appeal on 28 April.

Call for Megrahi's release

On 14 September 2008, the Arab League Ministerial Council passed a resolution calling for the 'political hostage' Megrahi to be released from prison in Scotland. The resolution demanded that the UK government should hand over the documents, which the SCCRC had identified, to Megrahi's defence lawyers saying that Britain's refusal to do so represented a 'miscarriage of justice'. The Arab League also endorsed Libya's right to compensation for the damage done to its economy by UN sanctions which were in force from 1991 until 1999.

On 6 November 2008, three Criminal Appeal Court judges reserved judgment on an application by defence counsel, Maggie Scott QC, for Megrahi to be released on bail pending his second appeal against conviction which is expected to be heard in 2009. A week later, Megrahi's bail application was refused.

On the Lockerbie bombing's 20th anniversary, The Independent newspaper published an opinion piece by award-winning journalist and author, Hugh Miles, repeating questions around Megrahi's guilt.

On 14 August 2009, Megrahi withdrew his appeal. South of Scotland SNP MSP Christine Grahame, said "There are a number of vested interests who have been deeply opposed to this appeal continuing as they know it would go a considerable way towards exposing the truth behind Lockerbie... In the next days, weeks and months new information will be placed in the public domain that will make it clear that Mr Megrahi had nothing to do with the bombing of Pan Am 103." Tam Dalyell, the former Labour MP for West Lothian has long believed Megrahi is the victim of a catastrophic miscarriage of justice, and has publically stated that Megrahi was merely a scapegoat.

Family and health

Megrahi is married to Aisha with whom he has five children: four sons (Khalid, 22, Mohamed, 16, Ali, 14, and Motasem, 11) and one married daughter, Ghada, 25 (ages as at December 2008). According to British newspaper articles published during the trial, Megrahi was born in Tripoli, and was educated in the United States and the United Kingdom.

On 19 September 2008, armed police escorted Megrahi from prison in Greenock to Inverclyde Royal Hospital, where he was expected to undergo medical treatment. A month later, it was announced that Megrahi has advanced prostate cancer, prompting calls for his second appeal to be sped up.

On 4 December 2008, Megrahi's family were amongst other relatives and friends of prisoners protesting against alleged miscarriages of justice in Edinburgh.

A petition to Scottish Ministers seeking the compassionate release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was raised on 19 December 2008. The petition states that Megrahi is terminally ill and would benefit physically and psychologically from compassionate release to his home in Glasgow while he awaits the outcome of the appeal granted to him by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in June 2007. Since it is likely to be many months before his appeal is finally decided, the petition asks that Megrahi be allowed to spend his very limited remaining time in Scotland with his family and loved ones.

Release

On 4 August 2009 Scotland's justice secretary Kenny MacAskill visited Megrahi at Greenock Prison with a view to considering a transfer request from the Libyan government. The following week it was reported that Megrahi was likely to be released within a few days on compassionate grounds due to terminal prostate cancer, although the Scottish Government dismissed this as "complete speculation". Furthermore, a United States official said that the US had no information suggesting Megrahi would be released and that he should serve out his sentence. MacAskill faced mounting international pressure from politicians in the United Kingdom and United States, US victims’ groups and Syracuse University (which lost 25 students in the Lockerbie bombing), all urging him not to release Megrahi, who it was claimed would be home in time for Ramadan. On 14 August lawyers representing Megrahi announced that he had applied to the High Court in Edinburgh two days previously to withdraw his second appeal, and that his condition had "taken a significant turn for the worse". On 19 August 2009 it was announced that the Scottish Justice Secretary had reached a decision on the bomber's fate, to be announced on the 20 August.

Despite protests, on 20 August 2009 the Scottish Government justice secretary Kenny MacAskill granted his release on compassionate grounds, stating that Megrahi was in the final stages of terminal prostate cancer and expected to die within three months. Speaking of the Scottish traditions of justice and mercy, MacAskill said he was "bound by Scottish values to release him", and allow him to die in his home country of Libya. Megrahi had served 8 years of his life sentence.

Following the announcement of the release the White House issued a statement saying it deeply regretted Scotland's decision to release Megrahi and also extended its deep sympathy for the families of the victims of the Lockerbie incident.

Conservative Party leader David Cameron said, "I think this is wrong and it's the product of some completely nonsensical thinking, in my view. This man was convicted of murdering 270 people, he showed no compassion to them, they weren't allowed to go home and die with their relatives in their own bed and I think this is a very bad decision."

Tam Dalyell, the former Labour MP and ex-father of the House of Commons, who has persistently claimed that Megrahi was innocent, said: "Mr MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, has arrived at the right decision on compassionate grounds. "I do not accept his endorsement of the guilt of Mr Megrahi, whom I continue to believe had nothing whatsoever to do with the crime of Lockerbie."

See also

• Pan Am Flight 103
• Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
• Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial
• Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission
• Alternative theories into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

Further reading

• Pan Am 103 - Lockerbie: the judges
• Trial and appeal reports by Dr Hans Köchler, international observer appointed by the United Nations