BBC NEWS
SOUTH OF SCOTLAND
22 July 2010 Last updated at 11:50 GMT
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10728433
Address of original article (reproduced below) as on 22 July 2010, 11:50 GMT:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-10727266
UN observer: Lockerbie truth 'may not be uncovered'
The UN's observer at the
trial of the Lockerbie bomber has said the circumstances surrounding the
case may never be fully uncovered.
Dr Hans Kochler, who saw
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi convicted at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in
2001, said he was not convinced of the Libyan's guilt.
The 58-year-old was jailed for
life for the 1988 bombing which killed 270 people, most of them
Americans.
US senators want his release in
2009 on compassionate grounds to be examined.
The former international observer
agreed there should be an investigation, not only into the release but
also the wider issues of the Lockerbie inquiry, trial and appeal.
He told BBC's Newsnight Scotland:
"Why, for instance, has the appeal - which was ongoing last year - been
dropped by Mr Megrahi?
"Another question would be why
did the secretary of state for justice take that unprecedented step and
visit the Libyan prisoner in a Scottish jail for a private meeting,
after that prisoner had applied for compassionate release?"
Dr Kochler said there was never
any question of Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill believing
there had been a miscarriage of justice in the case, but questioned what
was discussed at the meeting between the two at Greenock Prison on 4
August last year.
He pointed out that Megrahi
dropped his appeal against his conviction on 12 August.
"The issue is not one of
innocence or guilt," he said.
"The minister has repeatedly made
clear that he fully trusts the judgement of the Scottish courts.
"He has certainly discussed
matters which he did not disclose in public. He must have had a very
compelling reason to meet that prisoner in private."
When asked if the truth of the
circumstances would ever be uncovered, Dr Kochler said: "I'm very
sceptical.
"We do not know the truth about
the Lockerbie tragedy.
"The question that still remains
is what the second appeal would have resulted in, what decision would
the second appeal court have finally made if the proceedings were not
aborted."
In 2007 the Scottish Criminal
Cases Review Commission - which examines possible miscarriages of
justice - granted Megrahi a second appeal.
It subsequently emerged he was
suffering from terminal cancer.
His second appeal got under way
last year but shortly afterwards applications were made for both his
transfer to a Libyan jail and release on compassionate grounds.
Megrahi did not have to drop his
appeal in order to be released compassionately.
The SCCRC has spent the past six
months trying to get details of the abandoned appeal made public, but
none of the people and organisations involved - the Crown Office,
Foreign Office, police authorities, Megrahi and his legal team - have
given unqualified consent to the release of the documents.
Mr Kochler told Newsnight
Scotland: "I am not convinced that the Libyan convict, the only person
who was convicted in this case, is guilty as charged.
For that reason I would have
hoped that the SCCRC's report would have been taken more seriously and
that the appeal would have been allowed to continue in the interests of
justice. "
BBC
