Justice Perverted Is Justice Denied

Justice must be seen to be done? This justice must be seen to be believed.

LOCKERBIE APPEAL from 33/1218 Private Eye
No truth, no justice
HOW can the international community have faith in the forthcoming Lockerbie bombing appeal, when even the hearing to decide whether evidence  is kept secret from the defence is itself held in secret?

The international observer appointed by the United Nations, Doctor Hans Koechler has already already written to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband to protest about Miliband's decision to claim "public interest immunity" over documents believed to be crucial to the defence of Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, jailed for life for the 1988 atrocity.

"There is no justice without truth and there can be no truth if evidence is withheld in a criminal case by government decree" he wrote.

As Eye readers will be aware, the documents apparently relate indirectly to the timer alleged to have detonated the bomb which blew up Pan Am flight 103, killing 270 people, and which was said to incriminate Megrahi and Libya. Originating from an unspecified "foreign" country, they formed one of the six grounds identified by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for concluding that Megrahi may be innocent.

Furthermore, the SCCRC ruled that the suppression of documents and other evidence at his trial was in itself a further ground for appeal - raising serious questions about whether it was police or prosecutors, or both, who sat on crucial evidence.
 

Despite the material being made available to the SCCRC, Miliband is now trying to put the genie back into the bottle. But if, after last week's hearing when even Megrahi's lawyers were shut out, the appeal judges agree to the documents' suppression, there will be few who believe Megrahi's appeal will be anything but a charade.
 

There is no date for the three judges - the Lord President Lord Hamilton and Lords Kingarth and Eassie - to make up their minds over the PII However, they did throw out an attempt by the prosecution to block Megrahi's defence team from having access to and carrying out their own forensic testing on other evidence and material used at the original trial. Given the suspicions about the fragment of bomb timer said to have been found (Eyes passim), that may prove very interesting. But whether that is a step towards a meaningful appeal remains to be seen.