 June 10, 2002 Mandela calls for new Lockerbie appeal
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Nelson Mandela today called for a fresh appeal in the case of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset al-Megrahi. His comments came after meeting al-Megrahi for more than an hour at Glasgow's Barlinnie prison. Mr Mandela also called for consideration to be given to al-Megrahi serving his life term in a Muslim country like Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt. "Megrahi is all alone," Mr Mandela told a packed press conference in the prison's visitors' room. "He has nobody he can talk to. It is a psychological persecution that a man must stay for the length of his long sentence all alone." Mr Mandela said he also hoped to meet Tony Blair and President Bush to discuss the case. The former president, who himself spent more than 20 years as a prisoner, said that al-Megrahi was being "harassed" by other inmates at Barlinnie. "He says he is being treated well by the officials but when he takes exercise he has been harassed by a number of prisoners," said Mr Mandela. "He cannot identify them because they shout at him from their cells through the windows and sometimes it is difficult even for the officials to know from which quarter the shouting occurs." During the 30-minute press conference, Mr Mandela described in detail how a four-judge Commission from the Organisation of African Unity had criticised the basis by which al-Megrahi came to be convicted at a special Scottish court, sitting in the Netherlands, in 2001. Al-Megrahi was convicted of murder for smuggling a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 with the loss of 270 lives. Mr Mandela said that it had been suggested that the case could go either to the Privy Council or the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. "From the point of view of fundamental principles of natural law, it would be fair if he is given a chance to appeal either to the Privy Council or the European Court of Human Rights," said Mr Mandela. Mr Mandela had arrived earlier amid strict security for his meeting with al-Megrahi - and later in the day, with Megrahi’s family, also inside the prison. He travelled there in a people carrier with darkened windows, flanked by police cars and motorcycle outriders. He did not have to undergo any security checks, and was escorted to al-Megrahi’s living room along with members of his entourage. Al-Megrahi is kept in a cell of his own within the prison, in a section nicknamed by other inmates as Gaddafi’s Cafe. Among those who met Mr Mandela at the prison was Megrahi’s lawyer, Eddie MacKechnie, who had earlier told reporters of what he claimed was new information which had not been made available to the trial at the time of al-Megrahi’s conviction. "An $11 million payment was made by the Government of Iran to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command two days after the atrocity," said Mr MacKechnie. He said the information had come from a former CIA officer who had given details of times, dates and bank accounts, adding: "My concern is not simply that there is evidence of such payment, but whether that information was available to any British authorities." |
