The plot to blow up Pan Am flight 103 was hatched in Malta, it has been claimed.

The plot to blow up an American airplane in 1988 was hatched in Malta but the bomb was loaded at Heathrow, fresh evidence shows.

A three-year investigation by a group of documentary makers working for Al Jazeera unearthed evidence debunking the official story that the bomb left from Malta.

But the documentary, Lockerbie: What Really Happened?, which aired last night on Al Jazeera, convincingly argued that the plot was planned in Malta by a group of terrorists who operated from here.

The documentary makers gained access to unpublished US diplomatic cables and tracked down former intelligence sources to support their theory.

Pan Am flight 103 was downed over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 killing 270 people.

Abdelbaset al Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 after being convicted of the bombing but six years later the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) ruled that he could have suffered a miscarriage of justice, a belief long held by Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was on the ill-fated flight.

For too long, the island’s name was tainted by the notion that the bomb was loaded there and this helps take the heat off

The ruling, along with the conclusions of several investigations by journalists and private eyes over the years, helped absolve Malta from any involvement in the atrocity, along with Mr al Megrahi.

The official theory accepted by the judges who convicted Mr al Megrahi rests on the notion that the former Libyan intelligence agent, who worked for Libyan Arab Airlines in Malta, loaded the bomb on an Air Malta plane bound for Frankfurt.

The bomb was supposed to have travelled from Luqa airport to Frankfurt where it was transferred on to a flight to Heathrow. In Heathrow, the bomb was again transferred on to Pan Am 103 bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in the US.

The latest documentary sheds light on events in Malta months before the actual bombing. According to documentation gathered for the film, in March 1988, intelligence officers from Iran, Syria and Libya met at the Miska Bakery, in Qormi. The place was used by a cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) that operated in Malta.

Foreign intelligence agencies knew of the cell’s presence on the island and were monitoring the bakery.

However, the information was not accurate enough for action to be taken.

The Iranian, Syrian and Libyan intelligence officers had agreed to a general campaign “against Israeli and American targets” but Pan Am 103 was not yet in the picture. Things changed three months later when, on July 3, the USS Vincennes, a military ship patrolling the Persian Gulf, shot down an Iranian passenger plane killing all 290 people on board, including 66 children.

The ship mistook the airliner for a fighter jet but the US refused to issue an apology even after the tragedy was revealed. Iran wanted revenge and a plan was hatched to destroy an American aircraft. In October 1988, terrorists from the PFLP-GC met in a St Julian’s apartment to discuss the final details of its execution.

Information on this meeting came from a source who was present. The source was tracked down by Jessica de Grazia, a former Manhattan District Attorney working for Mr al Megrahi’s defence. Her findings would have formed the basis of his appeal hearing, which he abandoned on being released in 2009 from Greenock prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds.

One of those present for the Malta meeting was Mohammed Abu Talb, who headed the Swedish cell of PFLP-GC, and would later become one of the prime suspects in the case before the probe shifted to Libya and Mr al Megrahi.

Journalist Joe Mifsud had reported on the meeting in the wake of the Lockerbie attack. Speaking to Times of Malta yesterday, Dr Mifsud was not surprised by the findings of the documentary. “It confirms what I had reported on, even before the Lockerbie trial, that Abu Talb was the prime suspect in the case,” he said.

Dr Mifsud, who was present for Mr Abu Talb’s testimony at the trial, said the Swedish police had found clothes from Malta in the Palestinian’s apartment in Sweden and a calendar with December 21 circled.

In fact, the theory that the Lockerbie bombing was executed by the PFLP-GC on behalf of Iran was in line with the original leads pursued by Scottish and American investigators.

Al Jazeera tracked down the alleged bomb maker, Marwan Khreesat, to Amman in Jordan, where he is kept under surveillance by Jordanian intelligence. He refused to discuss the affair on camera but a source close to him later told Al Jazeera the attack had indeed been commissioned by Iran and the bomb was put on board at Heathrow.

The film-makers also spoke to a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected to Germany and said the order to down an American plane came from Iran’s supreme leader at the time, Ayatollah Khomeini.

At one point, the focus of the investigation shifted from Iran to Libya. The Al Jazeera documentary shed light on why this could have happened and reported on a phone call US President George Bush (senior) had made to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in March 1989.

The two leaders, it is claimed, did not want to antagonise Syria, which was the PFLP-GC’s sponsor state, and decided that Libya, which had taken part in the Malta meetings, should be the focus of the investigation.

A year later, Syria backed the US in the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.

An important element in Mr al Megrahi’s conviction was the part played by Sliema shopkeeper Tony Gauci.

Mr Gauci was the main witness in the case, having identified Mr al Megrahi as having bought clothes from his shop a month or so before the bombing. Fragments of the clothes were found in fields in Scotland along with the rest of the debris from the disintegrated plane.

The documentary argued that when investigators were convinced the culprits were the PFLP-GC, Mr Gauci had identified Mr Abu Talb as being the man likely to have bought clothes from his shop. Controversially, Mr Gauci later identified Mr al Megrahi when the investigation shifted focus on to Libya. His testimony has long been criticised. Prosecutors faced accusations they pressured and coached Mr Gauci to identify Mr al Megrahi. More recently, it also emerged that Mr Gauci and his brother were paid $3 million by the US after the trial.

George Thomson, who was involved in the documentary’s investigative team, said the scientific evidence presented exonerated Malta as the place of departure for the bomb.

“For too long, the island’s name was tainted by the notion that the bomb was loaded there and this helps take the heat off,” he said.

Dr Swire confirmed that some relatives of the Lockerbie victims would be asking the Scottish courts to reopen the case. “The Al Jazeera documentary is extremely welcome and confirms what many of us believed was the true story underpinning the death of our loved ones,” he said.

Times of Malta collaborated with the documentary investigators for the film.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com

Additional reporting Kurt Sansone