Megrahi, who says he was a member of the Libyan intelligence service, was sentenced to life in prison January 2001 after a Scottish panel of judges sitting in a special court in Holland relied on circumstantial evidence to find him guilty of bombing Pan Am Flight 103. At the trial, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who was accused alongside Megrahi, was acquitted.

A panel of five Scottish judges turned down Megrahi’s appeal of his conviction March 14. The next day he was flown under heavy guard to Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison to serve out his sentence.

After meeting Megrahi, Mandela called for a new appeal of the conviction and asked it be heard by either the Privy Council, the highest Appeal Court in the United Kingdom, or the European Court of Human Rights.

Mandela also condemned the imposition of 20 years of solitary confinement on the prisoner--claimed to be needed for his own protection--to be "psychological persecution" and a "second punishment." The South African leader called for the Libyan to be moved to a Muslim country where he would be able to mix with other prisoners.

Mandela’s call comes in the wake of the issuance of a scathing report on the conviction of Megrahi by Hans Koechler. Koechler was appointed by United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan to act as his observer at the trial. After the appeal was rejected, Koechler said Megrahi’s defense lawyers should be investigated by the Law Society of Scotland because they "didn’t appear to act as representatives of the appellant. They seemed to have their own agenda." This included not calling any defense witnesses or mentioning that the key prosecution witness, a native of Malta, had been "repeatedly invited for holiday trips to Scotland by Scottish police."

At the press conference, Mandela cited the criticisms of Megrahi’s conviction made by a four-judge commission from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and concluded "it will be a pity if no court reviews the case itself." Assistant secretary general of the Union of Arab Lawyers Sabra Ammar described the proceedings as a "political trial." Speaking from Tripoli in Libya, Megrahi’s brother, Mohamed Ali, is quoted in the Scottish press saying that "nobody from our country and society believes in Western justice."

The U.S. rulers have used the Pan Am plane explosion to further their attacks on Libya. Since the people of that country overthrew a U.S.-backed monarch in 1969 they have been subjected to economic embargoes and military assaults by Washington. Along with the monarch, the new government headed by the bourgeois nationalist figure Col. Muammar Gaddafi forced the U.S. and British military to vacate their military bases in the country. Banks and oil companies owned by U.S. and European capitalists were nationalized.

In 1979, Washington branded the government of Libya as a terrorist regime. Nearly a decade later U.S. president Ronald Reagan, alleging that Libya was responsible for the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub in which two U.S. military personnel died, banned nearly all trade and financial interactions with Libya. That same year U.S. forces bombed Tripoli, killing 37 people, including Gaddafi’s daughter.

At the trial, prosecutors relied on testimony about the activities of Megrahi in relation to Libyan Arab Airlines and connections with airport personnel to win a conviction.

But in recent weeks both Labour Party member of Parliament Tam Dalyell and Megrahi’s new solicitor Edward MacKechnie told the press that Megrahi explained he was employed by Libyan Arab Airlines as a cover for buying spare parts and planes for his country in face of the sanctions.

Megrahi was never called to the stand to give evidence at the trial even though his former solicitor Alistair Duff is said to have been aware of his activities.

Ari Fleischer, spokesperson for U.S. president George Bush, praised the rejection of Megrahi’s appeal, calling it a "vindication of successive United States administrations." Fleischer demanded Tripoli pay compensation to the families of those killed on the Pan Am flight. "The completion of the appeal does not end United States sanctions," he said, "but should spur Libya to take quick action to fully comply with the requirements of the United Nations Security Council."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home