The freed Lockerbie bomber on Friday released documents online that he said support his claim that he is innocent of the 1988 bombing of a plane over Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Scotland’s top law officer criticized the move, saying Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi had chosen the “selective publication of his view of the evidence in the media.”
Megrahi dropped an appeal against conviction over the atrocity shortly before he was released from a Scottish jail last month on compassionate grounds, because he is dying of prostate cancer.
Hundreds of pages of documents prepared for the appeal by Megrahi’s Scottish lawyer, Tony Kelly, were published on the Website www.megrahimystory.net.
“I have returned to Tripoli with my unjust conviction still in place,” said the Libyan, who is in a hospital in Tripoli.
“As a result of the abandonment of my appeal, I have been deprived of the opportunity to clear my name through the formal appeal process. I have vowed to continue my attempts to clear my name,” he said in a statement.
“I will do everything in my power to persuade the public, and in particular the Scottish public, of my innocence. Through my Web site I have published the material which featured in the first full hearing of my appeal,” he said.
Megrahi, 57, was admitted to hospital at the start of this month, less than a fortnight after his release when he was given less than three months to live.
The former agent is the only person convicted of the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
His release, ordered by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, triggered fury from the US administration and families of the 189 US nationals who died.
Megrahi insists that he sympathizes with the victims’ families.
“I hope that this can assist in the understanding of my case, especially for those who have been most profoundly affected by it,” he said in the statement issued by his lawyers.
More documents will be put online in coming days.
“Mr Megrahi hopes to continue to publish details of his appeal challenge in the course of the forthcoming weeks,” a spokesman for Megrahi’s lawyers said.
Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, said she deplored the manner of his attempt to challenge his conviction after he had abandoned his appeal.
“The only appropriate forum for the determination of guilt or innocence is the criminal court,” said Angiolini, who is responsible for prosecutions in Scotland.
She said that if the appeal had come to court, prosecutors were “ready, willing and able” to argue the case for his conviction in the appeal which Megrahi dropped.
“Mr Megrahi was convicted unanimously by three senior judges following trial and his conviction was upheld unanimously by five judges, in an Appeal Court presided over by the Lord Justice General, Scotland’s most senior judge,” she said.
“Mr Megrahi remains convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in UK history,” she said.
<<<<<
A Scottish government spokeswoman underlined that Megrahi’s release had been on compassionate grounds and had nothing to do with his conviction for the bombing.
It added that it had studied what other documents could be released with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
“Mr. MacAskill made his decision to grant Mr Al Megrahi compassionate release to return to Libya to die based on the due process of Scots law. He also made clear that he supports the conviction,” she said.
The US this month warned Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi to be mindful of American sensitivities over the Lockerbie bombing when he attends his first UN General Assembly in New York next week.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS