[A-List] Lockerbie verdict

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Dalyell demands inquiry for 'innocent' Megrahi

MICHAEL SETTLE
The Herald, 27 March 2002

      TAM Dalyell, the veteran back bencher, yesterday
      demanded the government launch an inquiry into
      the Lockerbie bombing, disclosing to MPs that
      police notebooks recording the aftermath of the
      tragedy had been destroyed.

      The Labour MP for Linlithgow, a long-time
      campaigner for justice in the Lockerbie case,
      claimed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the
      49-year-old Libyan convicted of the mass killing,
      was innocent.

      He used parliamentary privilege to question the
      Scottish court's verdict, drawing attention to claims
      vital documents had gone missing. 

      "This Easter, an innocent man, innocent of the
      monstrous crime he was found guilty of
      committing, languishes in Barlinnie prison in
      Glasgow," Mr Dalyell told MPs. 

      "His name is Abdelbaset al Megrahi. Before
      parliament rises, the House ought to get an
      undertaking that the British government, yes the
      British government, and not a highly controversial
      devolved Crown Office in Edinburgh, will address
      certain questions."

      The Labour MP noted: "Our country's relations with
      the Arab world have not been devolved to a
      Scottish parliament." 

      He said Mary Boylam, a former police constable,
      had been asked to give a statement to the
      procurator fiscal regarding her activities at
      Lockerbie.

      As the request had come almost 11 years after the
      event, the retired WPC phoned Livingston police
      station to ask for her notebook. She was told it had
      gone missing.

      "Who gave the instruction for the destruction of the
      notebooks?" asked Mr Dalyell. "After all, this was
      the biggest murder trial unresolved in Scottish legal
      history.

      "The answer to this question is more likely to be
      found not in Edinburgh but in London."

      Mr Dalyell recounted how Ms Boylam had
      discovered the handle and rim of a suitcase in a
      field near the crash scene.

      The Father of the Commons said the WPC found
      out the suitcase belonged to Joseph Patrick Curry,
      a member of the US Army special forces. Later,
      she was told by a colleague it was the suitcase
      which contained the bomb.

      "If the bomb was in Curry's suitcase, Mr Megrahi is
      hardly likely to be guilty," said Mr Dalyell.

      Stephen Twigg, junior privy council minister, said
      that, although he could not comment directly, Mr
      Dalyell had had "the opportunity to ventilate the
      issue".

Full article at:
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/27-3-19102-23-59-54.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx