{"id":1169,"date":"2016-06-23T19:23:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T19:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2016-06-23T19:23:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T19:23:46","slug":"macaskillbookprivateeyearticle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megrahiyouaremyjury.net\/?p=1169","title":{"rendered":"Private Eye article on Kenny MacAskill’s Lockerbie book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The following article appears in the current issue of Private Eye (no. 1421):<\/div>\n
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If former Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill believed his new book about the Lockerbie bombing would end the controversy surrounding the conviction of Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, he was wrong.<\/em><\/div>\n
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The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice, provides an intriguing insight into the double dealing of the US and UK governments, whose \u2018deals in the desert\u2019 with Colonel Gaddafi were agreed against the backdrop of Megrahi\u2019s release \u2018on compassionate grounds\u2019. But in the book MacAskill demolishes a central pillar of the prosecution case against Megrahi, the only man convicted of the atrocity. He concludes that Megrahi did not, as claimed, buy the incriminating clothes used to pack the bomb suitcase from a Maltese shop \u2013 the direct link between Megrahi and the bomb.<\/em><\/div>\n
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He then renders the conviction doubly unsafe by revealing the contents of material which has been kept secret under a controversial public interest immunity (PII) certificate signed in 2008 by the then Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then known only to originate from a foreign country, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) had identified the material as potentially important to Megrahi\u2019s defence. The Crown\u2019s failure to disclose it at Megrahi\u2019s trial in 2000 was one of the commission\u2019s grounds for granting the appeal. Under the PII, the commission could not reveal the contents, leading to accusations that the government was involved in a cover-up. (Eye 1205).<\/em><\/div>\n
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MacAskill, who signed Megrahi\u2019s release back to Libya, now reveals that the document in question was a letter from the late King Hussein of Jordan to then prime minister John Major, blaming the atrocity on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine \u2013 General Command (PFLP-GC). Eye readers will recall that members of the group were the original suspects. Some had been caught in Germany two months before Lockerbie, apparently preparing an airliner attack.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Bomb maker Marwan Khreesat later confessed to having built five bombs designed to detonate at altitude. Two were concealed within Toshiba radio-cassette players, one of which was never recovered. The Lockerbie bomb was also contained within a Toshiba radio cassette player – although a different model. Suspicions of PFLP-GC involvement were strengthened because Khreesat\u2019s bombs were designed to detonate between 30 and 50 minutes after takeoff. The Lockerbie bomb on Pan Am flight 103 exploded 38 minutes after the airliner left Heathrow on 21 December 1988.<\/em><\/div>\n
Despite admitting building aircraft bombs, Khreesat was freed by a German court a fortnight after his arrest and allowed to return to his native Jordan. He was later revealed to be an informant for the German and Jordanian <\/em><\/div>\n
intelligence services, which added weight to King Hussein\u2019s letter to prime minister Major.<\/em><\/div>\n
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MacAskill seeks to downplay the letter\u2019s significance, saying it was sent soon after Lockerbie and before the police investigation switched focus from the PFLP-GC to Megrahi in 1990. This is not the case. It emerged during the appeal hearings that the letter was sent in 1996 \u2013 long after the investigation had changed tack.<\/em><\/div>\n
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In his book MacAskill thus underscores two of the six grounds which the SSCRC decided rendered the conviction unsafe. In an interview on Scottish television he even conceded it may \u2018unsafe\u2019, but said he was still convinced of Megrahi\u2019s guilt. Not only is some of his reasoning based on untested assertions, untested evidence and in places on the discredited testimony of CIA supergrass Majid Giaka, but as a lawyer he should know that is not how the criminal justice system works.<\/em><\/div>\n
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The book has led to calls for a further appeal against conviction and for a far reaching inquiry. Police in Scotland are already investigating allegations of criminal misconduct made by the Justice for Megrahi campaign against some of those involved in the Libyan\u2019s conviction \u2013 including allegations of withholding evidence from the defence. The book now raises questions about who else shared MacAskill\u2019s doubts over the safety of elements of the case and for how long.<\/em><\/div>\n
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MacAskill may himself yet be in hot water over the breach of the PII certificate. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was still considering the contents of his book.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The following article appears in the current issue of Private Eye (no. 1421): If former Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill believed his new book about the Lockerbie bombing would end the controversy surrounding the conviction of Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[146,92,35,160,156,5,161,6,67,140,154],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jordan","tag-justice-for-megrahi","tag-kenny-macaskill","tag-khreesat","tag-king-hussein","tag-lockerbie","tag-majid-giaka","tag-megrahi","tag-pflp-gc","tag-pii","tag-the-lockerbie-bombing-the-search-for-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nPrivate Eye article on MacAskill's Lockerbie book<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Private Eye 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