[DEBATE] : Lockerbie bomber in fresh appeal

[Riaz K Tayob]

[please note there is no war against muslims... they just are the usual 
suspects... as everyone should know! this is the second appeal, the dean 
of one of Scotland's Law Schools was scathing on the conviction... even 
some of the victims relatives were not convinced... but the judges were... ]

Lockerbie bomber in fresh appeal
Megrahi
Megrahi has launched a second appeal against his conviction

The legal team for the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has told 
judges that the evidence against him was "wholly circumstantial".

Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, who has prostate cancer, was not in 
court as his second appeal got under way.

However his QC, Maggie Scott, said he could follow proceedings via live 
video link to Greenock Prison.

She told the Court of Appeal that it remained Megrahi's view that he had 
suffered a "miscarriage of justice".

The second appeal is being heard by five judges in Edinburgh, headed by 
Scotland's senior judge, the Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton.

Miss Scott said that because of his cancer Megrahi would need to take 
breaks due to the pain and was set to see doctors later this week for a 
new course of treatment.
    
In this wholly circumstantial case the critical inferences are not the 
only reasonable inferences that could have been drawn from the accepted 
evidence
Maggie Scott QC

She told the court: "The appellant's position is that there has been a 
miscarriage of justice.

"The trial court, on the basis of wholly circumstantial evidence, 
concluded beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant was involved in the 
commission of this crime.

"Our submission is it was wrong to do so".

She argued that the guilty verdict against Megrahi depended upon four 
"critical inferences" drawn at his trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Miss Scott said these included that Megrahi was the buyer of clothing 
remnants of which were found in the suitcase containing the bomb and 
that the purchase was made on 7 December, 1988.

She said it was also inferred that the purchaser knew the purpose for 
which the clothing was bought and that the suitcase containing the 
improvised explosive device was "ingested" at Luqa airport in Malta.

The defence counsel argued that they were not sufficiently supported by 
accepted evidence and relied on defective reasoning.
    
APPEAL TIMELINE
January 2001: Megrahi convicted
March 2002: Appeal rejected
June 2007 "Conviction unsafe"
October 2008: Cancer diagnosed

She said: "In this wholly circumstantial case the critical inferences 
are not the only reasonable inferences that could have been drawn from 
the accepted evidence."

She said they were insufficient in law to support the guilty verdict 
returned against Megrahi.

The first part of his hearing is expected to last four weeks with 
further stages in the process taking it into next year.

He has already lost one appeal against his conviction for the 1988 
atrocity in which 270 people died.

Since then he has been in prison in Scotland, and must remain in jail 
until at least 2026.

In 2007, after a four-year investigation, a second appeal was ordered by 
the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which said Megrahi's 
conviction "may be unsafe".

He is currently held in Greenock Prison, where he was diagnosed as 
suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

In October 2008, appeal court judges rejected his plea to be released 
from jail on compassionate grounds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8021385.stm