Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi (Arabic: عبد الباسط محمد علي المقرحي) (not المقراحي as commonly misspelled by the media) (born April 1, 1952) is a former Libyan intelligence officer, head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Tripoli.^[1] On January 31, 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 December 21, 1988.^[2] Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment and is serving his sentence in Greenock prison, near Glasgow. 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.

His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah 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 March 23, 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 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

File:PAMegrahihostage.jpg

Megrahi's supporters call him Lockerbie's 271st victim

Megrahi's appeal against his conviction at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in January 2001 was refused on March 14, 2002 by a panel of five Scottish Judges at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.^[3] According to a report by the BBC^[4], 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".^[5]

On November 24, 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 May 31, 2004 he was granted leave to appeal against his 27-year sentence.^[6]The appeal against sentence was scheduled to be heard in Edinburgh by a panel of five Judges on July 11, 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.^[7]

Review

On September 23, 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 November 1, 2006 Megrahi was reported to have dropped his demand for the new appeal to be held at Camp Zeist.^[8] In an interview with The Scotsman newspaper of January 31, 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.^[9] On June 9, 2007 rumours of a possible prisoner swap deal involving Megrahi were strenuously denied by prime minister, Tony Blair.^[10] 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."^[11]

Second appeal

On June 28, 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.^[12] The second appeal at the Court of Criminal Appeal is unlikely to be heard before 2008.

Megrahi's legal team, who conducted their own investigation of the case in parallel to the SCCRC's review, are expected to tell the appeal judges that the entire case is flawed. His solicitor, Tony Kelly, said:

"There's not one aspect of the case that's been left untouched."^[13]

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

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.^[14]
Tony Gauci, chief prosecution witness at the trial, is alleged to have been paid $2 million for testifying against Megrahi.^[15]
Mebo's owner, Edwin Bollier, has revealed 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.^[16]
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".^[17]

A further procedural hearing in the Edinburgh Appeal Court is scheduled for December 20, 2007.^[18]

United Nations Inquiry

In October 2007, former British diplomat Patrick Haseldine submitted this e-petition to prime minister Gordon Brown:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to support calls for a United Nations Inquiry into the death of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

"Dr Hans Koechler, UN observer at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, has described Mr al-Megrahi's conviction as a 'spectacular miscarriage of justice'. If, as now seems inevitable, the Libyan's conviction is overturned on appeal, Libya will be exonerated and a new investigation is going to be required.

"Apartheid South Africa is the prime alternative suspect for the Lockerbie bombing - see South Africa luggage swap theory.

"We understand that, when Libya takes its seat at the UN Security Council in January 2008, there will be calls for an immediate United Nations Inquiry into the death of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The other 14 UNSC members — including Britain — should support such an Inquiry and nominate Dr Koechler to conduct it."

Professor Robert Black and Iain McKie (father of Shirley McKie) were the first to sign the petition, closely followed by UK Families Flight 103 spokesman Dr Jim Swire. It is open for signature until December 29, 2007.^[19] On November 1, 2007 Megrahi invited 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."^[20]

Family

He is married to Aisha, and has one son, Khaleb, who attended the trial; and a daughter, Ghada. According to British newspaper articles published during his trial, he was born in Tripoli, and was educated in the United States and the United Kingdom.