Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2002, page 27

Special Report

 

Who Really Destroyed Pan Am Flight 103?—Continued

 

By Andrew I. Killgore

Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset Ali Mohammad Megrahi was convicted, and the conviction upheld on appeal, of destroying Pan American World Airways flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 259 passengers, most of them Americans, and 11 people on the ground at Lockerbie. Recent news stories have Libya ready to pay $2.7 billion—or $10 million each—to the families of the 270 victims.

Dr. Robert Black, professor of criminal law at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and mastermind of the unique legal arrangements for trying accused Libyans under Scottish law in the Netherlands, told the Washington Report that his very high-ranking Libyan contacts tell him that the stories are without foundation. Black suggested that the lawyers representing some of the families may be behind the fake stories. Working on a contingency fee basis, he explained, they would stand to gain more for themselves if they could “stampede” families they do not represent into joining their suit.

Dr. Black said he has heard that Magrahi has sacked his old lawyers and expects to petition the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to hear his case on the basis of a miscarriage of justice. The professor believes Magrahi should have a good chance on the basis that, in Black’s opinion, the defense lawyers failed to concentrate on some key points which would have been exculpatory for Magrahi.

Professor Black shares widespread public skepticism about Magrahi’s guilt, believing that the bomb which destroyed Pan Am 103 was put aboard in London, not in Malta. That translates into someone other than Libya destroying the plane.

The question is, of course, who? Black told the writer that for the two years immediately after Lockerbie he was privy to the reports of investigators looking into the crash. Nothing pointed to Libya. Suddenly, however, the focus turned to Tripoli.

Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

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