[A-List] Lockerbie verdict: Mandela intervenes

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

Mandela plea for new Megrahi appeal
BILLY BRIGGS
The Herald, 11 June 2002

NELSON Mandela called for a new appeal yesterday for the Lockerbie
bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, after visiting him at
Barlinnie prison in Glasgow.

Speaking after meeting Megrahi privately for more than an hour, Mr
Mandela said he wanted to meet George W Bush and Tony Blair to discuss
the case, and called for the Libyan to be transferred to a jail in a
Muslim country like Morocco, Tunisia, or Egypt.

Perceived as the honest broker and trusted by both western leaders and
Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, Mr Mandela was integral to the
process of bringing an acceptable solution to the stalemate between the
governments of Libya, Britain, and the US over whether a trial should go
ahead.

At an extraordinary press conference inside Barlinnie, Mr Mandela
described Megrahi's life sentence, effectively in solitary confinement
in quarters of his own, dubbed "Gaddafi's cafe", as "psychological
persecution".

He also said Megrahi was being harassed by other inmates who shouted
abuse at him from their windows when he took exercise.

"Megrahi is all alone," said Mr Mandela, who served 27 years in a prison
during the South African apartheid regime.

"He has nobody he can talk to. It is a psychological persecution that a
man must stay for a length of his sentence all alone."

Mr Mandela, who also met Megrahi's family inside the prison, said
consideration should be given to the bomber serving his life term in a
Muslim country trusted by the West. "It will make it easier for his
family to visit," he said.

Mr Mandela said Megrahi was being treated well by the prison authorities
but was being verbally abused by a number of prisoners when taking
exercise.

He said he would return to Scotland in July to meet relatives of victims
of the atrocity and that he also hoped to meet the prime minister and
the US president to discuss the case.

"I am hopeful that these men will have feelings and do not want to be
associated with any decision which appears unfair to trained lawyers,"
he said.

During the 30-minute press conference, Mr Mandela described in detail
how four judges from the Organisation of African Unity had criticised
the basis by which Megrahi came to be convicted.

He said they concluded that the judgment violated the general principles
of criminal law and the legal basis for the conviction was unsound.

Although Mr Mandela was at great pains not to criticise the judgment, he
implied it was flawed in answering a question as to whether he regretted
becoming involved with the case.

"No. Why should I regret?" said Mr Mandela.

"I got involved in the Lockerbie trial because there was a deadlock.

"I was thinking firstly about the relatives of victims so that they must
see justice for themselves, and that justice was done according to the
fundamental principles of the law," he said. "It does appear that those
fundamental principles were ignored."

Mr Mandela also cited a relative of a victim of the Lockerbie bombing
who said there had been a cover-up, and in referring to the OAU's
verdict, he said: "Let's listen to the judges. They have criticised it
fiercely, and it will be a pity if no court reviews the case itself."

Megrahi was convicted of murder for smuggling a bomb aboard PanAm flight
103 which exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, with the loss of
270 lives.

Mr Mandela, a lawyer himself, said it had been suggested that the case
could go either to the Privy Council or the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg and from the point of view of fundamental
principles of natural law an appeal would be fair.

Mr Mandela - calm, composed and with immense courtesy - set out his
views clearly in what must be the most extraordinary press conference
ever held in the Victorian-era jail.

He had arrived there earlier amid tight security for his meeting with
Megrahi, travelling in a people carrier with darkened windows, flanked
by police cars and motor cycle outriders.

Mr Mandela, who did not have to undergo any security checks, was
escorted to Megrahi's living room.

Among those who met the former South African president at the prison was
Eddie MacKechnie, Megrahi's lawyer, who had earlier told reporters of
what he claimed was new information which had not been made available to
the trial at the time of Megrahi's conviction.

"An $11m payment was made by the government of Iran to the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine General Command two days after the
atrocity," said Mr MacKechnie.

He said the information had come from a former CIA officer who had given
details of times, dates and bank accounts, adding: "My concern is not
simply that there is evidence of such payment, but whether that
information was available to any British authorities."

There was also support for Megrahi at Barlinnie yesterday from the
Gaddafi Foundation of Libya, which is to pay for his future legal costs
and for Megrahi's family to stay in Scotland.

Mohamed Ismais, a spokesman, said: "We're confident that he is
innocent." However, Mr Mandela's comments were criticised by Susan
Cohen, from New Jersey, who lost her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, in
the bombing.

"I feel Nelson Mandela's behaviour is disgusting in this case," she
said.

"He is paying back his old debts, and I think people in Scotland should
feel insulted that he has questioned their judicial system.

"Megrahi is a mass murderer and to speak about how he is alone is
pathetic."

Jim Swire, a spokesman for the victims' families in the UK, who is known
to be unhappy about Megrahi's conviction, welcomed the visit.

"There can't be many people in the world better qualified than Mr
Mandela to examine the conditions under which Mr Megrahi is being held,"
he said.

"I have no feelings of vengeance. Personally I would strongly support Mr
Mandela's call for a further review of the verdict itself.

"I don't think it serves the purposes of humanity to have this man
having a desperate time in prison."