The freed Lockerbie bomber on Friday released documents online that he said support his claim that he is innocent of the 1988 bombing of a plane over Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Scotland’s top law officer criticized the move, saying Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi had chosen the “selective publication of his view of the evidence in the media.”
Megrahi dropped an appeal against conviction over the atrocity shortly before he was released from a Scottish jail last month on compassionate grounds, because he is dying of prostate cancer.
Hundreds of pages of documents prepared for the appeal by Megrahi’s Scottish lawyer, Tony Kelly, were published on the Website www.megrahimystory.net.
“I have returned to Tripoli with my unjust conviction still in place,” said the Libyan, who is in a hospital in Tripoli.
“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,” he said in a statement.
“I will do everything in my power to persuade the public, and in particular the Scottish public, of my innocence. Through my Web site I have published the material which featured in the first full hearing of my appeal,” he said.
Megrahi, 57, was admitted to hospital at the start of this month, less than a fortnight after his release when he was given less than three months to live.
The former agent is the only person convicted of the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
His release, ordered by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, triggered fury from the US administration and families of the 189 US nationals who died.
Megrahi insists that he sympathizes with the victims’ families.
“I hope that this can assist in the understanding of my case, especially for those who have been most profoundly affected by it,” he said in the statement issued by his lawyers.
More documents will be put online in coming days.
“Mr Megrahi hopes to continue to publish details of his appeal challenge in the course of the forthcoming weeks,” a spokesman for Megrahi’s lawyers said.
Scotland’s Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, said she deplored the manner of his attempt to challenge his conviction after he had abandoned his appeal.
“The only appropriate forum for the determination of guilt or innocence is the criminal court,” said Angiolini, who is responsible for prosecutions in Scotland.
She said that if the appeal had come to court, prosecutors were “ready, willing and able” to argue the case for his conviction in the appeal which Megrahi dropped.
“Mr Megrahi was convicted unanimously by three senior judges following trial and his conviction was upheld unanimously by five judges, in an Appeal Court presided over by the Lord Justice General, Scotland’s most senior judge,” she said.
“Mr Megrahi remains convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in UK history,” she said.
<<<<<
A Scottish government spokeswoman underlined that Megrahi’s release had been on compassionate grounds and had nothing to do with his conviction for the bombing.
It added that it had studied what other documents could be released with the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
“Mr. MacAskill made his decision to grant Mr Al Megrahi compassionate release to return to Libya to die based on the due process of Scots law. He also made clear that he supports the conviction,” she said.
The US this month warned Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi to be mindful of American sensitivities over the Lockerbie bombing when he attends his first UN General Assembly in New York next week.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS