Lockerbie bomber issues more 'evidence of innocence'

The Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing today published more documents he claims prove his innocence.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi insisted the move was not meant to add to the upset of the people “profoundly affected by what happened in Lockerbie”.

But he added: “My only intention is for the truth to be made known.”

Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was controversially freed from prison on compassionate grounds earlier this year.

He had been serving a life sentence at Greenock prison for the bombing of the Pan Am flight 103 in 1998, in which 270 people were killed.

Before his release, the bomber dropped his second appeal against that conviction.

His Scottish lawyers, Taylor and Kelly, said Megrahi remained ill in hospital in Tripoli, and that the documents published on the website www.megrahimystory.net related to his appeal.

In a statement Megrahi said: “I recognise that the Court of Criminal Appeal in Scotland is the only authority empowered to quash my conviction. In light of the abandonment of my appeal this cannot now happen.”

However he added: “I continue to protest my innocence – how could I fail to do so?”

Megrahi said much of the material published today was “buttressed by the independent investigations of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission”.

It was the commission that referred Megrahi’s case back to the courts for its second appeal.

Megrahi – who was convicted of the bombing in January 2001 at a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands – had mounted an unsuccessful appeal in 2002.

But in 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, sent his case for a subsequent appeal.

Today he said: “The commission found documents which they concluded ought to have been disclosed to my defence.”

He claimed this included a “record of interest in financial reward” by Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper who sold clothing found to have been in the suitcase that contained the bomb.

Megrahi also said the commission had seen documents which should have been given to his defence team at the trial.

He stated: “The commission concluded that the non-disclosure of these documents and other material may have affected the trial process and caused a miscarriage of justice.”