A BBC report cast fresh doubt on the conviction of a Libyan man convicted of the December 1988 bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, southwest Scotland, as it queried the reliability of a key witness.
BBC Newsnight Scotland reported late on Thursday that there were concerns about the evidence of prosecution witness Alan Feraday, who testified during the trial of former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi.
Three men who the forensic scientist also gave evidence against have since had their convictions quashed, it said.
Solicitor Eddie McKechnie, who represented Megrahi at the Lockerbie trial in 2001, told Newsnight that it provoked "serious issues" about the conviction.
"It is a factor that I take very seriously into account on behalf of Mr. Megrahi," he said.
"One would have thought that when a professional and a government forensic expert is impugned in a number of cases ... then serious issues arise," he said.
The BBC program said it understood that papers about Feraday's evidence had been sent to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is investigating Megrahi's conviction.
Megrahi is serving a minimum 27-year prison term for his part in the downing of New York-bound Pam American Flight 103 that killed 270 people.
In 2001, judges at a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands found him guilty of murder. His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was cleared.
An appeal made later by Megrahi was refused.
During the trial, Feraday, who is now said to be retired, told the judges that he was in no doubt that a circuit board fragment found after the disaster was part of the detonator.
Dr. Jim Swire, who led a campaign for justice after losing his daughter Flora in the bombing, told the BBC that the latest revelation "undermines one's confidence" in Megrahi's life sentence.
"I'm personally not satisfied of Mr. Megrahi's guilt. I emerged [from the trial] riddled with doubts. This will of course augment them," Swire said.
"If one finds that three cases have been overturned, it rather undermines one's confidence," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not