Scottish Panel Recommends Re-Opening Pan Am 103 Case

LONDON _ Nineteen years after a bomb blew up Pan Am flight 103 in the skies above Lockerbie Scotland, and six years after a former Libyan intelligence agent was convicted of planning the attack, a judicial review has resurrected lingering doubts about the case.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent panel that oversees matters brought before Scottish courts, recommended Thursday that Abdulbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the case, be granted permission to file a fresh appeal.

“The commission is of the view, based on our lengthy investigations, the new evidence we have found and other evidence which was not before the trial court, that the applicant may have suffered a miscarriage of justice,” the SCCRC said in a statement.

The commission’s 800-page report has not been made public, but in a brief statement, the commission said that it had concerns about a key witness identification of al-Megrahi and that other exculpatory evidence had not been made available to the defense.

The commission went out of its way to knock down some of the more far-fetched claims by al-Megrahi’s supporters and lawyers. This included allegations that the CIA “spirited away” evidence from the crash site and that a “CIA badge” was found at the crash site but not recorded as evidence.

Recent reports in the British media have suggested that a crucial piece of forensic evidence, a sliver of circuit board from the bomb, may have been tampered with, but the review panel also rejected this.

The immediate effect of the decision is that al-Megrahi, who already has seen one appeal rejected, will get another chance, and the Libyan government, which reached a separate $2.7 billion settlement with the victims’ families in 2002, could also seek legal redress.

Legal experts in Britain suggested that if the conviction is overturned, Libya could ask for its money back or demand compensation from the U.S. or Britain.

Jim Kreindler, the New York attorney who negotiated the settlement with the Libyan government, disputed that, noting that al-Megrahi was convicted in a Scottish criminal proceeding while the settlement with Libya was reached in a separate civil proceeding.

“We reached an agreement with Libya. Its a contract; its enforceable. Even if Megrahi is acquitted, it has no bearing on the settlement,” he said.

Pan Am 103, a Boeing 747 en route from London to New York, blew up 35 minutes into its flight, killing all 259 people on board and 11 others on the ground. It remains the worst terrorist atrocity on British soil, and resulted in the most expensive criminal prosecution in British history.

Al-Megrahi and another man, Al-Amin Khalifah Fhimah, were charged with the crime in November 1991, but the Libyan government refused to hand them over. Sanctions were imposed on Libya, and after eight years of negotiations, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi agreed to allow the suspects to be tried under Scottish law at a military base in the Netherlands.

The case was heard by a panel of three Scottish judges. Although al-Megrahi remains the only person convicted in the case _ Fhimah was acquitted _ no one believes he acted alone, and theories abound about who might have supported the plot.

“It’s unsettling because it keeps coming back,” said Kara Weipz, who lost her brother on the flight. “Every time Pan Am 103 is back in the news, it brings the family members back to December 21, 1988-and that’s what’s unsettling.”

Weipz, of Cherry Hill, N.J., is president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, a survivors group. She and other members of the group said Thursday that while they remain convinced of al-Megrahi’s guilt, they are not troubled by the new appeal.

“I don’t have any doubts about the fairness of the Scottish legal system and I don’t see any reason why the verdict would be overturned, but if some issue wasn’t fully explored, it deserves to be brought out,” said Glenn Johnson, whose 21-year-old daughter Beth Ann was killed in the attack.

“For us, the case has never been closed,” said Johnson, a resident of Greensburg, Pa. “We’re still trying to get the FBI to reopen the case because we don’t feel that everybody who was involved has been brought to trial.”

In Britain, Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora on Pan Am 103, said Thursday that he has long doubted al-Megrahi’s guilt.

“I went into that court in Holland thinking I was going to see the trial of those who were responsible for the murder of my daughter. I came out thinking he had been framed,” Swire, a physician, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

“I’m very much afraid that we saw steps taken to ensure that a politically desired result was obtained,” he said.

Pan Am 103 was targeted six months after the USS Vincennes, a guided-missile cruiser, mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing 290. Investigators initially believed Iran, Syria and a group called the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command orchestrated the Pan Am attack as retaliation.

The Pan Am flight was brought down by a bomb concealed inside a Toshiba cassette recorder that had been put on board in piece of checked baggage. Clothing from the baggage was traced to a shop in Malta, and the focus of the investigation shifted to Libya after a Maltese shopkeeper identified al-Megrahi as the purchaser of the clothing.

In the statement released Thursday, the SCCRC said that the shopkeeper’s identification may have been faulty, and also that new evidence suggested that the clothing was purchased on a date when there is no proof that al-Megrahi was in Malta.

Al-Megrahi, who has always insisted he had nothing to do with the bombing, issued a statement from the Scottish prison where he is serving his 27-year sentence.

“I am confident that when the full picture is put before the ultimate arbiters (the Scottish High Court), I shall finally be recognized as an innocent man,” the statement said.

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