The death of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi need not mean the end of the search for the truth that would prove his innocence and exonerate Malta from its link with the tragedy, according to campaigner Jim Swire.
I think there is still hope the truth will come out because many think the verdict should be challenged
Dr Swire, whose daughter died in the 1988 aircraft explosion, believes Mr al-Megrahi was innocent and that the bomb that killed 270 people did not leave from Malta.
Now that Mr al-Megrahi was dead, it was up to the public to keep up the pressure on ensuring justice was served, he said.
“His death means media interest will dwindle ... Revealing the truth won’t be easy as it will expose the atrocities that took place to bring about the verdict. But I think there is still hope the truth will come out because many think the verdict should be challenged,” the 76-year-old said.
In 2001, Libyan Mr al-Megrahi became the only person convicted over the downing of a Pan-Am flight. Since then, he had unsuccessfully appealed and dropped a second appeal shortly before the controversial decision by Scotland to allow him to return to Tripoli on compassionate grounds.
He had prostate cancer and died on Sunday.
Malta was implicated in the case because the prosecution alleged Mr al-Megrahi had originally placed the unaccompanied bomb on an Air Malta flight.
It argued that the suitcase containing the bomb was then transferred onto a feeder flight to London at Frankfurt airport. At Heathrow the bomb moved onto the Pan Am jumbo jet to New York. But the flight never got to its destination as it exploded over the town of Lockerbie in Scotland 38 minutes after take-off on December 21, 1988.
Investigators said the suitcase contained fragments of clothing made by a manufacturer in Malta and sold from a shop in Sliema. The trail eventually led them to Mr al-Megrahi after the shop owner, Tony Gauci, identified him.
But fresh evidence last March seriously challenged the Malta connection allegations and maintained Mr al-Megrahi could have suffered a miscarriage of justice. A report by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission shed doubt on Mr Gauci’s credibility as a key witness, confirming media reports he had been compensated by the US State Department for his evidence.
Dr Swire believes the Maltese government and Air Malta, the airline accused of carrying the bomb, remained “very restrained” throughout the case and could have fought more to clear their names.
Contacted yesterday, a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said: “Since 1988, successive governments have insisted that, according to our records, the bomb did not leave from Malta.
“We are still firm in that conviction. We cannot ignore that there were two judgements on Mr al-Megrahi. The fact that the second appeal was initiated does show that doubts persist on the verdicts. Unfortunately, it was not concluded.”
A Libyan intelligence officer, Mr al-Megrahi always denied any responsibility for the bombing.
Dr Swire, a UK doctor, did not always believe in Mr al-Megrahi’s innocence. His daughter, Flora, died on the eve of her 24th birthday as she was flying to the US to spend Christmas with her American boyfriend.
“I attended his trial... In the beginning I thought I was going to watch the conviction of one of the murderers of my daughter but the evidence I heard made me believe he was being used as a scapegoat,” he said.
Justice For Megrahi, an organisation campaigning for his innocence to be declared, criticised the Scottish courts for having failed to deliver justice.
“However long it takes, the campaign seeking to have Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction quashed will continue unabated, not only in his name and that of his family, who must still bear the stigma of being related to the ‘Lockerbie Bomber’, but, above all, it will carry on in the name of justice,” the organisation said.