New evidence shows convicted Lockerbie bomber probably innocent

I have always thought that Abdel al-Megrahi who was convicted of carrying out the Lockerbie bombing attack in 1988 was innocent. Even some family members of victims have felt the same. Nevertheless the mainstream press has always accepted his guilt as a fact and there was a huge howl when he was released to Libya for health reasons while Gadaffi was still in power.

In my view he was a convenient pawn in Gadaffi's successful attempts to improve relations with the west. Gadaffi no doubt knew as well that he was innocent but was quite willing to go along with the charade. Megrahi's return back to Libya was probably in part due to commercial interests. Now there is a documentary to be shown on Al Jazeera "Lockerbie: Case Closed"" on Feb 27 (today) at 20:00 GMT on the English Channel that reveals new evidence that Megrahi was innocent.

The SCCRC (Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission) has found that the testimony of an important witness is suspect and likely tainted. Key testimony against Megrahi came from Tony Gauci a Maltese shop owner. Gauci identified Megrahi as the man who brought clothing and an umbrella from him on Dec. 7,, 1988. Remnants of the clothing were found in the wreckage.

The investigating commission found that Gauci had earlier seen a photo of Megrahi in an article before he identified him in a lineup. The investigator's also discovered the Scottish police knew that Gauci was interested in financial reward for his testimony although this is against Scottish law. The police lied about this.

Reportedly Gauci actually collected a 2 million dollar U.S. government reward for his role in the case. Megrahi has always protested his innocence and says he never visited Gauci's shop. For more see this article.