The Lockerbie Bomber Conviction

[DanaC]

Just watched an interesting report on newsnight that shows serious flaws in both the forensic evidence, the overall investigation and the trial process that led to the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber. Experts who worked on the case both in America and Scotland expressed serious doubts as to the safety of the conviction and equally serious doubts as to the methods emplyed by others in the investigation.

Even the central piece of evidence linking the attack to Libya (the fragment of the circuit board taken to be part of the bomb) was considered by this report to be 'improbable'. It was never properly tested. The person who was investigating for the FBI had a political not a scientific background. Tests conducted since have shown no propensity to produce a fragment anything like this. The fragment itself was not treated in anyway carefully as a piece of evidence by the police who found it (weeks after the event) and descriptions of the item underwent unusual changes across the period prior to it becoming hailed as a central piece of evidence. One of the forensic investigators refused to do residue tests, claiming he could make an assessment visually, purely by looking at it: something another forensic and metallurgist now says is highly questionable.

There was more to it. I can't recall all the details. But it was pretty compelling stuff.

It looks very much like whoever committed this appalling attack was never caught. And an innocent man has most likely spent years in prison. Unfortunately; as a condition of his release on compassionate grounds (hes dying of prostate cancer) he has had to withdraw the appeal he had pending. Compassionate release is not legally possible as long as the prisoner continues to protest his innocence.

So...we'll probably never know for sure.