So what really happened at Lockerbie..the search continues?

A guest article from the YFS legal eagle Ewan Kennedy who lives in Argyll.

It certainly made a change from my normal Saturday night on the telly; I’m usually just watching rather than taking part. In response to a request from Al-Masar TV I agreed to contribute a Scottish dimension to the recent kidnapping and “extradition” of a certain Mr Mas’ud, followed by the lifting of another former member of the Libya regime, this time by a team of American “SEALs”. While the programme focused mainly on these recent events, over an hour and a half there was a chance to add some input about the Lockerbie disaster itself and the subsequent trial.

The experience was a little different from my very few previous appearances on the BBC and STV. Al-Masar certainly aren’t heavily into bureaucracy, so there was no prior briefing; we were just instantly live and sound problems in the first few minutes meant that I couldn’t hear my interpreter. We were a panel of four, hosted by the talented young journalist Mohammed Eljabo. My fellow guests were a senior lawyer, whose number I’d recommend keeping handy if you’re ever tempted to visit Libya, a courageous commentator from Tripoli, and the international barrister (and Baroness of Carbisdale Castle), Samantha Kane, who has in the past represented Libyan clients.

The trigger for the programme was the series of arrests, which I suggest deserve far more serious attention outside Libya than they have received so far. Quite a bit of detail has come out and can be accessed on Professor Robert Black’s Facebook page “Friends of Justice for Megrahi” and on his www.lockerbiecase.blogspot.com. For example:

“Militiamen rushed into Mas’ud’s bedroom and seized him, transporting him blindfolded to a detention center run by the SSA in Tripoli. He was there for two weeks before he was given to another militia in Misrata, known as the Joint Force, which reports directly to Dbeibah. It’s a new paramilitary unit established as part of a network of militias that support him.

In Misrata, Mas’ud was interrogated by Libyan officers in the presence of U.S. intelligence officers, said a Libyan official briefed on the interrogation. Mas’ud declined to answer questions about his alleged role in the Lockerbie attack, including the contents of an interview that the U.S. says he gave to Libyan authorities in 2012 during which he admitted to being the bomb-maker. He insisted his detention and extradition are illegal, the official said.”

To explain, Dbeibah is the “interim Prime Minister” of Libya. He has been very vocal recently in his certainty of Mas’ud’s guilt in various matters, including Lockerbie.

Mas’ud is a former Libyan state official, who served ten years in prison after being convicted of crimes under the Gaddafi regime. He is now in prison in Washington and the American authorities have issued various charges against him, based on an affidavit that includes the remarkable statement that he purchased those incriminating clothes from a small shop in Malta. Followers of the Lockerbie tragedy will know that among all the contested facts it’s never been suggested that there were two purchasers and it was the only factor that linked the late Mr Megrahi to the biggest mass murder in Scottish legal history. Last night I took the chance to say that buying some very distinctive, locally made clothes might have been part of a deception to draw attention away from the actual source of the bomb, in the event of the suitcase containing it ever being found.

The two Libyan guests expressed their extreme concerns about a number of matters. There has been a general view that the 2008 settlement, in which Libya paid enormous compensation without any admission of involvement, was a political rather than a legal step, which was understood in Libya as drawing a line under the previous history. That men like Mas’ud, having done his time and now in his seventies, could be lifted, meant that none of the old regime, including those involved with the IRA through the 1970s, could feel safe. While one might feel that such men should not escape justice, the enthusiasm of Dbeibah for acting as judge and jury meant that nobody could be safe. 

I was asked about the reaction in Scotland and referred to the oral answer from the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, last week in Holyrood, briefly stating that she had been assured by the American authorities that the extradition was legal and had accepted their word. I agreed with my colleagues that for that to be the case would require a treaty between the two States involved, which would no doubt specify a procedure involving an indictment and an opportunity for the person targeted to present his case. I did not offer my view on the wider implications of Ms Bain’s statement, but I will state here that I believe accepting lower standards in a “lesser” regime only demeans our own system.

I was also asked about the feeling in Scotland that any trial might take place in America, when the crime of murder had been committed in Scotland. I pointed out the apparent existence of a Federal crime of harming US citizens abroad and on American aircraft and opined that the Scottish authorities would, I guess, be extremely reluctant to have another trial here. I mentioned how the UK government had been happy to take the credit when it was going and to shift the blame onto Scotland when it didn’t suit, such as over the release of Mr Megrahi.

In general I thought the programme was very fair and a great credit to Mohammed Eljabo for keeping us all under control. On the negative side I got the impression that in Libya, just as in mainstream thinking here, the official narrative of a bomb with a timer going unaccompanied onto a plane in Malta, passing through Frankfurt and ending up over Lockerbie is taken as a given. I got a chance to say that had that been presented just as a story it would have been seen through as a bizarre conspiracy theory, that the trial judges had been impressed by security at Luca airport and had not been able to work out how the bomb passed through, also that a more likely scenario was an atmospheric trigger and the bomb travelling at sea level to Heathrow. 

Finally I mentioned that while formal legal proceedings may have almost run their course apart from the European aspect, many of us, apart from Dr Jim Swire and the Reverend John Mosey remain concerned and will continue to seek the truth.

MY COMMENTS

One of the strengths of this blog is that it has many contributors with a wide interest and expertise in many different areas of the World. Here Ewan explains more information about the Lockerbie Disaster. I found the article very informative and interesting because I certainly think the complete truth remains hidden despite the many millions of pounds spent on uncovering the facts.

I am, as always

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