Robert Black: Locerkbie Trial was Failure

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | February 9, 2007, Friday // 00:00
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Professor Robert Black QC, FRSA, FRSE, FFCS, ILTM is Professor Emeritus of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Robert Black has taken a close personal and professional interest in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing of December 21, 1988, particularly because he was born and brought up in Lockerbie, Scotland. He has published a substantial number of articles on the topic in the United Kingdom and overseas. He is often referred to as the architect of holding the non-jury Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial at the neutral venue of Camp Zeist, Netherlands, and applying Scots Law to the Lockerbie case. After the accused Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi has been sentenced, Professor Black expressed the view that he is innocent.

Svetoslav Ivanov from Darik News talked to Robert Black. *

A: The evidence led at the trial was so weak that, in my view, no reasonable court could be satisfied with such. I think that the Scottish judges felt it would be extremely embarrassing to the Scottish criminal justice system and particularly to the public prosecutor, who is a very important figure in the country's legal system, if neither of the two Libyans accused in the Lockerbie trial was convicted.

Q: Could you try to explain why this trial was spoiled?

A: I think it was largely because the evidence was not sufficiently tested and probed, full of holes, gaps and contradictions. After all, every system requires that someone should not be convicted unless the court is satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that he is guilty.

Q: What is the biggest mistake in Lockerbie case? We know that the most important witness was a shopkeeper from Malta, who said Megrahi has bought from his shop goods that later were found in one and the same suitcase with the bomb blown up the plane.

A: I accept, without question, that if Megrahi was the person, who purchased these goods from the shop in Malta, that is very strong evidence against him. But the shopkeeper never identified Megrahi as the person concerned. All the time he was just saying that Megrahi resembles a lot this person. Besides, before the trial he described the client as being at least 50 years old and six feet tall. At the time Megrahi was 36 years old and is five feet, eight inches tall. That is a difference of more than ten centimeters. But, nevertheless, the judges held that the shopkeeper had identified Megrahi.

Q: You have your professional opinion about Megrahi's verdict. Do you have another version about who was responsible for that disaster?

A: That is a very difficult question. But I think that the most convincing evidence points towards a Palestinian group called Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, headed by the well-known terrorist Ahmed Jibril. In my view they were paid by the Iran's government because, as you remember, only six months before the Lockerbie bombing the Americans shot down an Iranian plane in the Persian Gulf coming back from Mecca, killing 290 passengers on board. That is why I think Iran contracted with the Palestinian organization to blow the American plane out of the sky in retaliation.

Q: Then why Megrahi is imprisoned?

A: He was quite well known to the American authorities as the person responsible for breaking the American sanctions against Libyan - Arabian airlines. Long before Lockerbie, the Americans had imposed trade sanctions on Libya and most of the airplanes in Libyan - Arab airlines were Boeings. In order to keep them in the sky, the Libyans needed spare parts. Megrahi's main job was to get such parts. In that capacity, he was well known to the CIA. They were looking for a scapegoat at the Lockerbie case and Megrahi's name and movements they already knew.

Q: As an expert on the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, do you think it is good for Bulgaria to move the case on neutral territory?

A: Theoretically, yes. However, the Libyans did not expect that Megrahi would be convicted and were disappointed when that occurred. Therefore, they are justifiably concerned about what happened at the neutral trial at Lockerbie So, I think, they might be very reluctant to be involved in another one.

*Interview scripted by Margarita Stoyancheva, Sofia News Agency

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