Following the publication of extracts from a soon to be released book by former Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, family members of the victims of the worst ever act of terrorism to occur on Scottish soil have said the case against Megrahi is now "crumbling."
#Lockerbie #Megrahi: Full text of today's statement by @AamerAnwar on @KennyMacAskill revelations. https://t.co/86ra6mhuZ2
— Robert Black (@rblackqc) May 17, 2016
Mr Anwar, who previously represented the families of the Scottish victims, and Mr Megrahi, told Sputnik on Wednesday that the door was still open for an appeal against the conviction.
"The families have never given up on pursuing a second appeal, it was simply the case that the Commission [Scottish Criminal Cases Commission] refused to refer it back to the Court of Appeal. But the door is still left wide open for a potential appeal," Mr Anwar told Sputnik.
"There are concerns over the conviction, that was revealed by Kenny MacAskill [ex-Justice Secretary for Scotland] and Alex Salmond [former First Minster of Scotland], in regards to the identification evidence that was critical to Mr Megrahi's conviction.
"There's serious consideration of whether to go back to the commission again in light of the shocking revelations that we've seen over the last 48 hours."
Previews of Kenny MacAskill's book, "The Lockerbie Bombing: The Search for Justice" tell that he does not believe that Mr Megrahi bought the clothes, and raised serious concerns over the legitimacy of the testimony given that Mr Gauci had later been unable to identify Mr Megrahi.
When asked if he believed that the conviction could have occurred without this key evidence Mr Anwar said: "That's a matter for the Lordships, but the testimony was significant.
"Had we known then, what we know now it might have put a different slant on matters. At the end of the day, in any court in this land, if you were to subsequently find out that a witness has been offered money to give positive testimony in court, or if you found out that they had been unable to identify an individual and they had been cajoled into recognizing someone — and there were all these problems with that identification evidence, then it's unlikely that that evidence would have been allowed into court," Mr Anwar told Sputnik.
Kenny MacAskill wrote that he received numerous death threats for the decision that the he and the SNP government made in 2009 to release Mr Megrahi to the Libyan authorities on compassionate grounds when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mr Megrahi died three years later in Libya.
Dr Jim Swire: #Lockerbie bombing conviction ‘crumbling’. If Megrahi didn’t buy the clothing, is no case against him. https://t.co/EWAPGYPzdl
— Robert Black (@rblackqc) May 18, 2016
Mr MacAskill has now revealed that at one stage he and the then First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, tried to use the planned transfer of Mr Megrahi to secure further powers for the Scottish Government in Holyrood. Mr Anwar suggested that this raises further questions over the previous attempts to bring this case to the Court of Appeal.
"At the time of Mr Megrahi's release it was always denied vociferously that it had anything to do with shady oil deals in the desert or weapons contracts, we now know that to be different, but there was also a denial that any pressure had been put on Mr Megrahi [to drop the appeal in return for release on compassionate grounds], so one wonders what is it that we are no supposed to believe."
Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the explosion, has campaigned to uncover the truth behind the bombing for several years.
He told Scottish newspaper, The National, that the case against Mr Megrahi was now "falling to pieces."
Mr MacAskill's book will not be published in full until the 28 May 2016.
