Conspiracy claims don’t stand up says Megrahi lawyer

Lockerbie victims remembered on 25th anniversary of atrocity that shook the world.

The lawyer who defended the Lockerbie bomber has rubbished conspiracy theories associated with the case.

Bill Taylor QC represented Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi at the May, 2000, trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Breaking his silence for the first time, the 69-year-old insisted claims the atrocity was ordered by Iran and that the deadly device was planted in Heathrow, not Malta, did not stand up to scrutiny.

He said: “We did raise all of these other possibilities in the course of our defence. They were examined in the greatest detail, and fully investigated but they did not stand up.

“It’s like all the theories in the Kennedy assassination. They are simply doors that have to be opened and investigated if you are defending, as we did.”

Lockerbie campaigner Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter, Flora, in the 1988 disaster, has long insisted Libya played no part in the plot.

Last month we also told how Dr Swire travelled to Malta to urge the Government to clear their name of any involvement.

Pan-Am flight 103 had flown from Frankfurt in Germany before arriving in Heathrow to pick up passengers bound for New York and Detroit.

During the trial, heard by a Scottish Court specially convened at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, the prosecution argued the bomb was planted on board an Air Malta flight at Luqa airport on the Mediterranean island. From there, the suitcase was allegedly tagged to join Flight 103 at Frankfurt. However, Dr Swire insists the device was actually loaded on to the flight at Heathrow. If his assertion was correct, the case against al-Megrahi would have collapsed. But his defence team believes the theory was “tested to destruction”.

One of them said: “If the suggestion is that the bomb was placed on board at Heathrow, how on earth did it occur to anybody to take a trip to Malta in order to buy some children’s clothing, in order to take that clothing back to London to assemble a bomb? It just doesn’t stack up.”

Mr Taylor also believes the appointment this week of Libyan prosecutors to examine the evidence also undermined the questioning of the case.

He added: “If the bomb was planted in Heathrow or Frankfurt by people who were many miles away from Libya, and of which the Libyans knew nothing, why is the new administration in Libya appointing two prosecutors who will be liaising with the Lord Advocate in the discovery of fresh evidence?”

Yesterday the UK, US and Libyan Governments announced they will co-operate to reveal “the full facts” of the bombing. In a joint statement they said: “The Governments of Libya, the United Kingdom and United States of America reiterate their deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible crime.

“We want all those responsible for this most brutal act of terrorism brought to justice, and to understand why it was committed. Full support will be provided to the investigation team to enable them to complete their inquiries successfully.

“We are striving to further deepen our co-operation and welcome the visit by UK and US investigators to Libya in the near future to discuss all aspects of that co-operation, including sharing of information and documents and access to witnesses.”

It has also emerged that al-Megrahi’s family plan to appeal against his conviction. His brother, Adel-Hakim al-Megrahi, said they wanted the truth to be revealed.

He stated: “We need to know who committed this horrible crime.”

CIA believe Syria was to blame

American spies believed Syrian militants were responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, and not Colonel Gaddafi’s Libyan regime.

According to newly unearthed testimony from CIA asset Dr Richard Fuisz, intelligence indicated the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command were behind the attack.

The documents also reveal senior Syrian government officials singled out the group’s leader Ahmed Jibril, who is still alive at 75, for blame. Dr Fuisz gave the depositions to lawyers in 2001 at the request of al-Megrahi’s defence lawyers, but they came too late to be used in the trial. He told them: “Numerous high officials in the Syrian government were quite affirmative on Jibril’s involvement in Pan Am 103.”

Dr Fuisz, a businessman who is said to have assisted the US intelligence service in the Middle East during the 1980s and 90s, said the Syrian officials he spoke to interacted with Jibril “on a constant basis” and that he was widely regarded to be the mastermind behind the bombing.