Broke Law firms dump staff to bankroll £135k expenses madness at Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

While hundreds of lawyers, trainees, paralegals and office staff face redundancy across Scotland’s dwindling legal landscape, it turns out the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission has no such problem.

Yes, folks, the SLCC is literally rolling in millions of pounds received from the solicitors complaints levy (around £5 million pounds since January 2008), added to the £2 million pounds of public money all used to fund an organisation which many MSPs dub “anti-client, anti-consumer”, and many solicitors & advocates dub “a bloody expensive waste of time & effort.”

Feel like submitting a claim to the SLCC for expenses ? (go ahead, make my day ! – Ed)

A recent article by Law blogger Peter Cherbi’s “Diary of Injustice in Scotland” reported on the expenses jollies at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, revealing that huge claims had been made by SLCC board members, but the actual claims themselves were not disclosed, as SLCC Chief Jane Irvine claimed, out of fear that board members would develop mental health problems if everyone got to know exactly what they were claiming for (oh, the mental health line, so there must be something worth hiding then – Ed)

So, if you are feeling the pinch, or got no money in the bank despite having studied all that time at Uni, slaved your guts out, and now face seeing your law practice go down the tubes, well look no further than the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, funded by yes, you guessed it - YOUR hard errm earned money from handling legal business for thousands of Scots clients.

The Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion confirmed today they are investigating the case of the missing expenses claims in the hopes that mass insanity at the SLCC over publication of their expenses claims can be avoided.

We await to see just who has been claiming what with our hard earned money ...

Scotland's 'rent boy’ justice system under investigation as revelations speak of ‘impropriety’ among leading figures in legal establishment

Magic Circle affair brought down Lord Dervaird. While reports leaking out from a divorce case this evening suggest that at least one senior member of Scotland's legal establishment, and several leading lawyers are currently 'under investigation' for ‘impropriety’ with teenage male prostitutes in Edinburgh and across Scotland, we take a look back at the 'Magic Circle scandal, which was unsurprisingly put to bed in the early 1990's in the traditional Scottish way as “nothing happened here, move along please” (oops, looks like they were errm .. wrong ?- Ed)

Ah those were the days (now upon us again ! – Ed)

Magic Circle Affair

Lockerbie Case : SNP’s Christine Grahame challenges QC Paul McBride over tampered bomb timer evidence

In an interesting report on last night’s BBC Newsnight Scotland, the Scottish Nationalist Party’s Christine Grahame MSP challenged QC Paul McBride over allegations that key evidence used to convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland was tampered with, and went on to travel around the globe on unlogged journeys, potentially contaminating the evidence’s credibility.

Newsnight Scotland investigates the key evidence of the Lockerbie bomb timer :

Christine Grahame MSP challenges Paul McBride over tampered evidence :

Christine Grahame MSP also issued the following Press Release :

Key Lockerbie evidence “unsafe” claims MSP

Scottish police investigators did not make the key piece of evidential material used to convict Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, secure an SNP MSP has claimed. Christine Grahame MSP has said the Crown Office has now confirmed to her that the fragment was taken to Germany and then to the US by Scottish investigating officers without the knowledge of the Defence team and more crucially the then Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyle, the senior prosecutor at the time of the investigation.

In an interview for Dutch TV yet to be shown on UK television Lord Fraser was asked if the fragment, known as PT-35 (alleged to be part of the bomb’s timer) had always remained in the UK. Lord Fraser responded:

“As far as I’m aware it’s always been in the UK.”

Asked if it had ever been to the United States, Lord Fraser responds:

“Not that I’m aware of,” adding that he would have known if it had left the UK, telling Dutch reporters: “What would have gone through my mind is, I’m not accusing the FBI or anything… [but] could this evidence get lost, or damaged or tampered with? No, no I would want to keep everything so that there can be no accusations at a trial that in some way [the fragment] has been fiddled with.”

Now SNP MSP Christine Grahame has confirmed that the same fragment also went to Germany two months before being sent across the Atlantic to Washington without, it seems, the knowledge of the Lord Advocate and the Crown Office. Ms Grahame herself a former lawyer, also claims Scottish police investigators did not record the fragment’s transportation across the world and in doing so broke the vital chain of evidence undermining the integrity of the fragment. She said:

“The Crown Office have confirmed to me that the fragment, PT-35, the piece of evidence that it was claimed by prosecutors linked Libya to the attack was also sent to Germany in April 1990 as well as the US.

“On the 22nd of June 1990 it was then taken to the FBI lab in Washington for examination by FBI officials there. Lord Fraser makes it clear he did not know and would not have allowed this evidence to be taken out of Scottish jurisdiction and control, but that is precisely what did happen. That leaves a very serious question mark over the central piece of evidence used to convict Mr Megrahi."

The senior Scottish police investigator involved in the case, retired Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Henderson told Dutch journalists last December,

“We couldn’t afford to let something like that go. It has never been in their [US] control at all. It couldn’t be, because it was such an important point of evidence it wasn’t possible to release it. It had to be contained to be produced at the court therefore you couldn’t afford to have it waved around for everyone to see it because it could have got interfered with.”

“But that is precisely what appears to have happened,” Ms Grahame said and separately confirmed she has seen additional documents yet to be made public that showed DCS Henderson had told Crown prosecution officials in a formal legal statement that the fragment had indeed been to the US. Ms Grahame added:

“I am not sure why DCS Henderson’s statements made separately to Dutch TV and to the Crown Office contradict each other so starkly. That is a matter for Mr Henderson to explain. Either this fragment was in the US or it was not.

“I am deeply concerned that during the investigation and indeed leading all the way up to the Trial that neither the Crown nor Megrahi’s Defence were ever made aware that this crucial piece of evidence was being ‘waved around for everyone to see’ as DCS Henderson put it.

“Questions also need to be answered about the associated evidence log that was meant to accompany PT-35. It mysteriously does not record that the fragment went to the US or Germany, even though the Crown Office has confirmed in writing that it definitely went to Germany."

Lockerbie : Al Megrahi publishes appeal documents online

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi – My Story. A website set up for Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, and recently released on compassionate grounds by the SNP controlled Scottish Government, has now published documents relating to his appeal, which it increasingly looks like no one in the Scottish justice system wanted to hear due to what would be uncovered.

The website can be found here : Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi – My Story

BBC News reports :

Bomber publishes appeal documents

The Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has published documents on the internet which he claims will prove his innocence.

Hundreds of pages relating to the appeal by Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi were put on a new website.

Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was freed on compassionate grounds last month.

Before his release, he dropped his second appeal against conviction for killing 270 people in 1988.

His Scottish lawyers, Taylor and Kelly, said the documents published on the website related to that appeal.

In a statement, Megrahi said: "I have returned to Tripoli with my unjust conviction still in place.

"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."

Megrahi was jailed in 2001 after being convicted by a Scottish Court in the Netherlands of the UK's worst terrorist atrocity.

A first appeal against that conviction failed and he dropped a second appeal last month.

Legal Aid Board Chief Douglas Haggarty escapes prosecution over Glasgow rent boy toilet incident

Senior SLAB lawyer Douglas Haggarty, charged with offence involving teenage male prostitute. After being charged over an incident involving an alleged encounter with a ‘rent boy’ (young male prostitute) in a Glasgow shopping centre toilet, Douglas Haggarty, the Legal Services Chief at the Scottish Legal Aid Board has been rescued by Tory Lord Advocate hopeful Paul McBride QC, and will now not face a court. having been dealt with by a ‘direct penalty’, although strangely enough, the Crown Office are rather reluctant to admit what penalty has been imposed.

Allegations of a ‘rent boy justice system’ persist …

LAWYER CLEARED IN RENT BOY QUIZ

Aid chief keeps job Daily Record 15/08/2009
By Paul Thornton

A LEGAL Aid boss, who was arrested in a toilet with a rent boy, has kept his job and won't be struck off as a lawyer.

Douglas Haggarty, 58, was found with the teenager by security guards in British Home Stores in the St Enoch Centre, Glasgow, in January.

The head of legal services at the Scottish Legal Aid Board, where his duties include lecturing lawyers on their conduct, was charged with soliciting in a public place.

But his lawyer, Paul McBride, QC, claimed there was not enough evidence and charges were dropped.

The Crown Office said Haggarty had been dealt with by a direct measure but would not say whether it was a warning letter, fine or other penalty.

Now the Law Society of Scotland have revealed he will face no professional sanctions.

The high-flying lawyer, who lives in Glasgow's Merchant City, went off sick from work after the incident but is understood to have been back for several months.

A Law Society spokesman said: "The society's client care committee took account of the fiscal's decision and reasons for it."

A SLAB spokesman said: "It would be inappropriate for the board to comment on a matter personal to a member of staff."

Charges against the teenager were also dropped.

Lockerbie : Al Megrahi says public inquiry must take place into bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

THE HERALD newspaper in an exclusive interview with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in December 1988 reveals today that Mr Megrahi supports calls for a full inquiry into the terrorist attack over 20 years ago that claimed 270 lives.

We at Scottish Law Reporter support the call for a far reaching, fully independent inquiry into the Lockerbie case.

The Herald newspaper reports :

The truth never dies

EXCLUSIVE: Megrahi demands Lockerbie inquiry

By Ian Ferguson and Lucy Adams in Tripoli

The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has backed demands for a far-reaching public inquiry into the atrocity, saying the international community owes that to the families of the 270 victims.

In his first full-length interview since being released last week, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi told The Herald: "We all want to know the truth. The truth never dies."

Speaking from a hospital bed at his home in Tripoli, Megrahi talked extensively about his 10-year battle with the Scottish legal system and insisted he did not commit the worst terrorist act on mainland Britain.

The revelation comes in the wake of The Herald's exclusive interview with the son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Saif al Islam al Gaddafi claimed the proposed prisoner transfer deal with Britain had targeted Megrahi and was linked to talks on trade and oil, but that his release on compassionate grounds was completed unrelated to commerce.

Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, revealed he dropped his appeal against the conviction because he would not live to see its outcome and was desperate to return to his family. "It is all about my family," he said. "People have said there was pressure from the Libyan authorities or Scottish authorities, but it wasn't anything like this."

Instead, he put his faith in an appeal for compassion and said he was impressed by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill during their meeting at Greenock Prison. "I thought he was a very decent man and he gave me a chance to say what I wanted and to express myself. He gave me the chance to make a presentation to him and he was very polite."

Megrahi is still determined to clear his name, partly through an autobiography, and also backs a public inquiry. Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the tragedy, has already called for such an investigation, but the UK Government seems firmly opposed.

"I support the issue of a public inquiry if it can be agreed. In my view, it is unfair to the victim's families that this has not been heard. It would help them to know the truth. As I said, the truth never dies.

"If the UK guaranteed it, I would be very supportive. I would want to help Dr Swire and the others with the documents I hold."

However, he added during an hour-long interview: "My feeling is that the UK Government will avoid a public inquiry because it would be a headache for them and the Americans and it would show how much the Americans have been involved and it would also cost them a lot of money which they may not want to spend because of the recession."

Megrahi was vitriolic about the Scottish police and legal system. "I was supposed to receive a fair trial and I was supposed to be subject to fair procedure. From day one of the trial there were delays and delays from the Crown Office. "The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission found at least six grounds of appeal and said there were six grounds on which it may have been a miscarriage of justice.

"From that point we asked the Crown for more documents and more papers. We received only some of them and they were still redacted. Most of the pages were black and I think this is shameful. They were supposed to give us everything."

Referring to the revelation seven years ago that some of the police notebooks recording the aftermath of the tragedy had been destroyed, Megrahi said: "It is very strange that the police forces that dealt with the case - and there were more than 400 officers - it is very strange that many of their notebooks went missing.

When one officer was asked about a notebook, he said it was destroyed. I find this very strange. Surely to destroy the notebooks of so many people is a decision that someone must have been made? This is not fair and is a big question mark about the case."

He said his priority now is to spend time with his five children, the youngest of whom is still of primary school age. "It was always my dream to come back to my family. It was in my prayers every day and when I received the diagnosis, even more so."

A new opinion poll for BBC Scotland has revealed most Scots think Megrahi should have died in jail. It also suggested more than two-thirds of Scots think Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been damaged by the release.

An even bigger majority believe it has had a detrimental effect on the Scottish Government, although more than half of those interviewed thought Mr MacAskill's should not resign. The poll findings emerged as opposition leaders at Westminster pledged to pursue Mr Brown because of his continuing silence.

Tory leader David Cameron said the Prime Minister had to be honest about any dealings with the Libyan government, while Nick Clegg, of the LibDems, demanded that he "come clean".

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN TODAY'S HERALD NEWSPAPER OR ONLINE HERE ...

Lockerbie : Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill explains decision on Al Megrahi release to Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh today heard a statement from Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill explaining his decision to release on compassionate grounds, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland in December 1988.

Amidst some self congratulatory questions from Mr MacAskill’s colleagues in the Scottish National Party, some half decent questions & points from a few MSPs and, admittedly some ludicrous suggestions from members of the opposition that Mr Al Megrahi could have been released to a ‘hospice’, party political point scoring did inevitably take over several times to an otherwise lacklustre parliamentary session on possibly Alex Salmond’s administration’s most important policy decision to-date.

Observers to the Lockerbie case in general are left with little doubt that if there is to be an inquiry into the Lockerbie case and the trial of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, such inquiries will have to be conducted internationally as obviously there is little hope of effective debate, transparency or further investigation in Scotland (don’t forget that next week Holyrood has another bite at the Lockerbie case, so we can all look forward to a repeat of today’s non event – Ed)

Today’s statement by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to the Scottish Parliament & questions asked by various MSPs :

Lockerbie : Law Society of Scotland President accuses US Government of bullying Scotland over Al Megrahi release

As quoted in today’s session of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh by Michael Matheson MSP, the Law Society of Scotland supported the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988

Here follows an interview with the President of the Law Society of Scotland, Ian ‘73k’ Smart, who talks about the release on compassionate grounds, while also accusing the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, of being a bully in her opinions expressed to the Scottish Government over Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill’s consideration over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

Interestingly, while Ian Smart and the Law Society may well have supported the release of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, they are a little less supportive of a full independent inquiry, which would probably end up damaging many institutions of Scots Law (including the biggest bully of them all, the Law Society of Scotland itself - Ed)

Law Society President Ian Smart speaks on the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, accuses US of bullying …

FBI Chief Mueller accuses Scots Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill of ‘making a mockery of the rule of law’ over Lockerbie prisoner release

The Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller, III has accused Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, of ”making a mockery of the rule of law” in his decision to release on compassionate grounds, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the man convicted under Scots Law for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988.

Director Mueller goes on in his letter to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, to heavily criticise him for his reasoning and decision making process over releasing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, claiming the Justice Secretary did not take the views of US prosecutors and law enforcement agencies over his plan to release Al Megrahi. Director Mueller then goes onto claim that Kenny MacAskill’s actions “give comfort to terrorists around the world”.

However, while the US administration is officially critical of the decision to release Al Megrahi from Greenock Prison home to Libya on compassionate grounds, the decision itself will probably help western companies who are now doing big business in Libya, reports the Sunday Herald, here : Megrahi: The contracts

Letter from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill :

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Over the years I have been a prosecutor, and recently as the Director of the FBI, I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors, since only the prosecutor handling the case has all the facts and the law before him in reaching the appropriate decision.

Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case. I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law, having been the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the investigation and indictment of Megrahi in 1991.

And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of "compassion."

Your action in releasing Megrahi is as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice. Indeed your action makes a mockery of the rule of law.

Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of "compassion."

Your action rewards a terrorist even though he never admitted to his role in this act of mass murder and even though neither he nor the government of Libya ever disclosed the names and roles of others who were responsible.

Your action makes a mockery of the emotions, passions and pathos of all those affected by the Lockerbie tragedy: the medical personnel who first faced the horror of 270 bodies strewn in the fields around Lockerbie, and in the town of Lockerbie itself; the hundreds of volunteers who walked the fields of Lockerbie to retrieve any piece of debris related to the breakup of the plane; the hundreds of FBI agents and Scottish police who undertook an unprecedented global investigation to identify those responsible; the prosecutors who worked for years - in some cases a full career - to see justice done.

But most importantly, your action makes a mockery of the grief of the families who lost their own on December 21, 1988.

You could not have spent much time with the families, certainly not as much time as others involved in the investigation and prosecution.

You could not have visited the small wooden warehouse where the personal items of those who perished were gathered for identification - the single sneaker belonging to a teenager; the Syracuse sweatshirt never again to be worn by a college student returning home for the holidays; the toys in a suitcase of a businessman looking forward to spending Christmas with his wife and children.

You apparently made this decision without regard to the views of your partners in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy.

Although the FBI and Scottish police, and prosecutors in both countries, worked exceptionally closely to hold those responsible accountable, you never once sought our opinion, preferring to keep your own counsel and hiding behind opaque references to "the need for compassion."

You have given the family members of those who died continued grief and frustration. You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand.

You have given Megrahi a "jubilant welcome" in Tripoli, according to the reporting. Where, I ask, is the justice?

Sincerely yours,

Robert S. Mueller, III

Director

UN Observer Dr Koechler on Lockerbie Bomber release : ‘The case is not closed’

Dr Hans Koechler, the United Nations observer at the Lockerbie Trial has issued the following Press Release, concluding the case of the now released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001 under Scots Law for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988 is very far from closed.

Release of the Lockerbie prisoner: the case is not closed

Statement by Dr. Hans Koechler, International Observer, appointed by the United Nations, at the Lockerbie Trial in the Netherlands

Vienna, 21 August 2009

P/RE/21831c-is

Dr. Hans Koechler has been appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as international observer at the Lockerbie Trial in the Netherlands. In two analytical reports, submitted to the United Nations in 2001 and 2002, about the trial and first appeal he had suspected a miscarriage of justice. Commenting on yesterday's release on compassionate grounds of the only person convicted in the Lockerbie case, the Libyan citizen Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, Dr. Koechler clarified certain important points in interviews for Austrian and international media.

Domestic and international legal aspects of the release

The decision by Scotland’s Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, was in conformity with Scots law and did not violate any international obligation of the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding other declarations, release on the basis of the recently ratified prisoner transfer agreement between the Libyan Jamahiriya and the United Kingdom would have violated the terms of an agreement concluded in 1991 (!) between the United Kingdom and the United States according to which the full sentence of any person convicted by the Scottish Court in the Netherlands would be served in a Scottish prison. Dr. Koechler who had listened to the reading of Mr. MacAskill’s statement, said that he is at a loss to explain how the Scottish authorities can say that they had no specific information on this legal matter because the UK authorities did not provide it to them. If he would have checked relevant documents in the public domain, he could have found – in the official records of the House of Commons – the text of a statement made by the then Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, the late Robin Cook, on 31 January 2001. Because of the importance of the issue in legal and political terms the respective part of the statement is reproduced below:

"I can give the right hon. Gentleman and the House an absolute assurance that there will be no deal with the Libyan Government on the sentence of Mr. Al Megrahi. I do not believe that any Scottish court would wear such a deal, even if we remotely contemplated striking one. As part of the terms of the agreement in 1991, it was agreed that the full sentence would be served in a Scottish prison. At that stage, we rejected the proposal that the person responsible might be sent to a prison in a third country. The United Nations will have access to his prison, because we have nothing to hide or to fear about the standard of Scottish prisons. I suspect that they will be better than those of Libyan prisons."

This was the Foreign Secretary’s answer to the following question by the Hon. Francis Maude, MP:

"Will the Government undertake that Al Megrahi will neither be released early as part of some deal with Libya, nor permitted to serve part of his sentence in Libya?"

In view of this official statement, made by the British Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons, it is crystal-clear that only release on compassionate grounds was in conformity with the United Kingdom’s international obligations - as Dr. Koechler had already stated on 5 August 2009 in an interview for the BBC London.

Dropping of the appeal by the convict

In an op-ed article for The Independent (London), Dr. Koechler has expressed serious doubts about the decision by Mr. Al Megrahi to withdraw his (second) appeal. His decision may have been made under duress and would thus be legally questionable, he said. According to Scots law, the termination of the ongoing appeal was not in any way required for compassionate release to be granted. The Scottish Justice Secretary will have to clarify vis-à-vis the Scottish, British and international public the exact circumstances under which the appeal was dropped. According to reports, Mr. Al Megrahi’s request was lodged through his defence team on 12 August 2009, in close proximity to the date of his release (20 August 2009) and just a few days after his meeting with the Justice Secretary. How are these coincidences to be explained?

It should have been obvious to the Scottish authorities that - in a case where an act international terrorism is suspected - it would be in the public interest of the country that has jurisdiction to continue with criminal proceedings and to exhaust all legal means to establish the truth about the incident. Why did the authorities satisfy themselves to deal with the question of criminal responsibility of two, later only one, suspect, and why did they accept the abrupt ending of the ongoing appeal of the only person convicted?

Omission by Scotland's Justice Secretary of any reference to the decision of Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission

Mr. MacAskill was right, in political as well as legal terms, in releasing Mr. Al Megrahi on compassionate grounds. However, in yesterday’s statement explaining his decision, he failed the test of statesmanship or judicial expertise. Upon concluding his statement he appeared more like a Prosecutor in a trial, suddenly assuming a vindictive tone and trying to convince the court of the guilt of the indicted, not like the Secretary of Justice who has to make a decision that is not related to the question of guilt or innocence (as is the case with “release on compassionate grounds” according to Scots law).

It is noteworthy that, in his statement, the Justice Secretary did not in any way take note of the fact that - in the years since the trial court's decision on 31 January 2001 - serious doubts have arisen about the guilty verdict and that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) – after four (!) years of painstaking investigations – had stated (in June 2007) that it suspects a miscarriage of justice and had, thus, referred the case back to the appeal court. He did – obviously deliberately – overlook the finding of the SCCRC according to which “there is no reasonable basis in the trial court’s judgment for its conclusion that the purchase [by Mr. Al Megrahi] of the items [clothes] from Mary’s House, took place on 7 December 1988.” It does not need special intellectual skills to realize that the entire verdict collapses if there is no proof for the assertion that Mr. Al Megrahi was the person who bought clothes on that particular day in that particular shop in Malta.

In view of the appeal now having been aborted, the work of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission will have been in vain. The least that is to be expected from the Scottish judicial authorities is that they publish the full report of the Commission. Up to the present moment, not only the full report has not been released into the public domain, several grounds of appeal given by the Commission are being kept secret.

Public inquiry and possible role of the United Nations

As matters stand in Scotland, there may be no further criminal proceedings or investigations. However, establishing the truth about the midair explosion of an airliner and identifying the perpetrators is in the supreme public interest of any polity that is built on the rule of law. The legitimacy of any state is closely connected to a state’s willingness and ability to investigate and prosecute sine ira et studio each and every incident such as that which caused the death of 270 innocent people on the PanAm plane and in Lockerbie, Dr. Koechler said. In an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera’s Felicity Barr the former UN-appointed observer reiterated his call for a public inquiry to be mandated by the British House of Commons. He further explained that, absent a decision by the House of Commons, the United Nations General Assembly may consider establishing an international commission of inquiry into the Lockerbie incident on the basis of Art. 22 of the UN Charter. Since the United Nations Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter, has decided on 12 September 2003 to remove the Lockerbie issue “from the list of matters of which the Security Council is seized,” the General Assembly would undoubtedly have authority to deal with the issue.

About alternative theories

In all conversations with media representatives and in an interview, moderated from London and broadcast live on Al-Jazeera TV shortly after Mr. Al-Megrahi’s release, Dr. Koechler has made clear that, as a United Nations-appointed observer as well as a scholar, he does not engage in any speculation about the perpetrators as long as no alternative theory about the incident can be built beyond a reasonable doubt. He added that, if the Scottish judges at Camp Zeist would have respected that criterion, they could not have reached the guilty verdict in the case of Mr. Al Megrahi.

"I saw the trial - and the verdict made no sense" Article by Hans Köchler in The Independent, London

Lockerbie observer mission of the International Progress Organization