Sheriffs involved in the Lockerbie case

[What follows is excerpted from an article that was published in The Herald on this date in 1993:]

One of Scotland's most distinguished legal figures is retiring.

Sheriff Principal John Mowat, QC, of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway, will be succeeded by Sheriff Graham Cox, at present a Sheriff at Dundee.

The appointment of Sheriff Cox, 59, by the Queen on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Scotland, will take effect from October 1, the Scottish Courts Administration said yesterday.

Among Mr Mowat's duties in recent years was the task of conducting the fatal accident inquiry into the Lockerbie disaster in which 270 people died.

During the £3m hearing he heard millions of words of evidence over a 61-day period.

He was born in Manchester 70 years ago and educated at Glasgow High School and Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh before graduating at Glasgow University.

[RB: The Fatal Accident Inquiry into the 270 deaths resulting from the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie opened in Easterbrook Hall, Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries on 1 October 1990. The Sheriff Principal’s 47-page findings were issued on 18 March 1991 and can be read here. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the evidence related to the positioning of the bomb suitcase in luggage container AVE4041. By the time of the trial at Camp Zeist the Crown’s stance (and its evidence) had altered significantly. For further details, see Dr Morag Kerr’s Adequately Explained by Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies.

John Mowat’s successor as Sheriff Principal, Graham Cox QC, presided at Camp Zeist on 6 April 1999 at the first appearance of Megrahi and Fhimah before a Scottish court.

Abdelbaset Megrahi’s Scottish solicitor up to and including the first appeal, Alistair Duff, is now a sheriff and is currently Director of the Judicial Institute for Scotland. Norman McFadyen who was the procurator fiscal in charge of the Lockerbie case (and was one of the two members of the prosecution team who viewed the infamous CIA Giaka cables) is now a sheriff in Edinburgh.]

The real perpetrators of Lockerbie bombing still to be brought to book

[This is the headline over a letter by Rev Dr John Cameron published on the website of the Belfast Telegraph on 1 December 2020. It reads as follows:]

In 1994 Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as a neutral venue for the Pan Am atrocity trial, but this was turned down by John Major.

His offer was also rejected by Tony Blair at the 1997 Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Edinburgh.

In words that still haunt our judiciary, Mandela warned “no one nation should be complainant, prosecutor and judge” in the Lockerbie case.

A life-long friend, the late Graham Cox, was Sheriff Principal of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway when Fhimah and Megrahi were arrested.

They appeared before him on April 6, 1999 at a makeshift Scottish court at Kamp Van Zeist in Holland.

In spite of his suspicion that the prosecution had arrested the wrong men, this court appearance starting off the subsequent legal proceedings.

Cox had no doubt the bombing resulted from the shooting down of Iran Air 655 by the USS Vincennes in July 1988, or that the Iranians recruited the PFLP-General Command.

Later, when Mandela asked the Kirk to intervene in a “serious miscarriage of justice”, Cox pointed me to the unsafe forensics, the unlikely use of a long-range timer and the fact that the bomb entered the system at Heathrow.

My report for the Kirk was used by Al Jazeera in a documentary which left no doubt of Megrahi’s innocence. [RB: Dr Cameron's report and the Al Jazeera documentary are referred to here, at the text accompanying footnote 46.]

Sadly, Cox warned against any hope that the verdict might be reversed.

Lord Fraser, then our senior law officer, had admitted the key witness Tony Gauci wasn’t “the full shilling”, had been paid $3m by the US and that the trial was a farce, but “nobody wants this can of worms opened”.

First Scottish judge to meet Lockerbie accused dies

[What follows is taken from an obituary published in The Herald on 10 January 2015:]

Graham Loudon Cox.
Lawyer.

Born: December 22, 1933;
Died: December 27, 2014.

Graham Cox, who has died aged 81, was a young army lawyer who went on to play a key role in the initial stages of the Lockerbie bombing case.

By then a veteran sheriff, who had already presided over the Lanarkshire Fatal Accident Inquiry into what was then the world's worst outbreak of E.coli, he was Sheriff Principal of the jurisdiction that covered the site of the atrocity and the first member of the Scottish judicial system to come into contact with the two Libyan suspects.

He sat on the bench at Camp Zeist, the temporary court set up in the Netherlands to hear the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, when they made their first appearance in private there on April 6, 1999. The pair, alleged to be behind the 1988 blowing up of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie which left 270 dead, faced charges of conspiracy, murder and violations of aviation laws.

The following week, April 14, Sheriff Principal Cox committed them for trial, a court case from which the reverberations still echo, more than a quarter of a century after the bombing. Fhimah was acquitted in 2001. Megrahi was convicted of the killings and sentenced to life imprisonment. He maintained his innocence and died of cancer in 2012 after being released on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi and Fhimah committed for trial 16 years ago today

On this date in 1999 Abdelbaset Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah were committed until liberated in due course of law (“full committal”) in separate brief hearings before Sheriff Principal Graham Cox QC sitting at Camp Zeist. No judicial examination was sought by the Crown.

What follows is taken from a long article on the Lockerbie case on the My Libya website:]

On 5 April 1999, after some months of discussions on concerns from the accused and their lawyers, al-Megrahi and Fhimah surrendered for trial in the Netherlands at the Dutch military airbase of Valkenburg, just outside The Hague. They were swiftly extradited to Scottish jurisdiction at Camp Zeist, just outside Utrecht. Camp Zeist, a former American airbase, had been agreed between the British and Dutch governments as the most suitable site for the trial. On the second of two appearances before Sheriff Principal Graham Cox QC, sitting at Camp Zeist, they were committed for trial on 14 April 1999. The normal period under Scots law within which the trial must commence, 110 days from the date of full committal, has been extended on application to the High Court, again sitting at Camp Zeist. The trial proper begins in early 2000 and is expected to last for at least a year.

Our confidence in our innocence has no bounds

[What follows is the text of a CNN report from this date in 1999:]

Libya has handed over two suspects in the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland to representatives of the United Nations.

The suspects are now en route to the Netherlands, where their trial will take place.

Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported that UN representative Hans Corell was at the handover ceremony in Libya.

"In a historical moment awaited by the world, the two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie case were handed over to be flown to the Netherlands for trial before a Scottish court," MENA said.

With the handover, a decade-long manhunt neared its conclusion Monday, as Scottish legal officers prepared to take custody of the two Libyans.

In the Netherlands, preparations continued Monday for the long-awaited trial.

The Dutch Justice Ministry said it would hold a news conference on Monday in connection with the handover of two Libyans.

"The news conference will be today," a spokeswoman said, but gave no information on the timing or location of the arrival of the suspects in the Netherlands after a handover to the United Nations at Tripoli airport.

Scottish prosecutors and journalists waited in Amsterdam while the two accused -- Abdel Basset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah -- began their journey to Europe.

A temporary detention unit at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands is ready for the suspects, Scottish officials said. The construction of bomb-proof cells below the base's former medical unit, which will serve as a courtroom, will take several months to complete.

Sheriff Graham Cox, the regional judge who will oversee pre-trial proceedings, was expected to arrive in the Netherlands on Monday. Scottish prosecutors Norman McFadyen and Jim Brisbane are already there.

Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid had said on Sunday that the handover would take place in "the next 24 or 48 hours."

When Tripoli transferred the men to the charge of the United Nations, that step paved the way for the lifting of punitive UN sanctions against Libya.

[Here is what Megrahi and Fhimah are reported to have said as they were transferred to UN custody in Tripoli:]

Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Lameen Fhima, have both made a statement on Libyan TV, saying that the two are innocent and going willingly to court. This is Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi's statement:

"We want to reaffirm to everyone that we are two simple Libyan nationals. We do not practise politics. We support families and have children. We love our children and we love our families. This is our normal life.  

"We were employees until we found ourselves involved in this accusation. Our confidence in our innocence has no bounds. We are confident of our lawyers' ability to defend us.

"Through the facts they [the lawyers] have in their possession we are going to prove our innocence to the world. 

"On the occasion of leaving [Libya] we want to tell everyone that, after getting the permission from the investigating judge and the public prosecutor, we are leaving freely and willingly without any pressure in order to appear before the Scottish court in the Netherlands.

"We want everyone to know that we have a great deal of self-confidence.  

"Time will prove that we are telling the truth and you are present here and are witnesses [of what I am saying]. We thank you once again for coming. We are also sorry that you had a difficult journey [by land]; next time you will come directly [by air] to Tripoli, and we are going to welcome you happily. God bless you."

The second suspect, Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, gave a V-for-Victory sign as he said: "I have nothing to add to what my friend has said. 

"I hope to see you on our return very soon, God willing. 

"Thank you. I wish for victory, God willing."

A friendly transfer

[What follows is excerpted from a report on the BBC News website of proceedings at Camp Zeist on this date in 1999:]

The two Libyans made their first appearance in a Scottish court on 6 April, 1999.

In a very brief private hearing at Camp Zeist in Holland, Sheriff Principal Graham Cox, Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah were remanded in custody.

They were not required to make any plea or declaration by the unique Scottish court convened specifically for this case.

The two suspects were accompanied by their lawyers and United Nations officials observed the proceedings.

Both men will continue to be held in separate cells in the UK's smallest prison, set up at the former Dutch air base in the run-up to their trial.

Officials had earlier read out to the men the warrants for their arrest in Arabic and English - listing the names of the 270 victims one by one. They are charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and breach of the Aviation Security Act.

Both men were fingerprinted, photographed and subjected to DNA sampling. This is standard procedure in any Scottish criminal case.

They will be formally committed for trial next week. (...)

The two Libyans flew into The Hague from Tripoli on Monday [5 April 1999] before being transferred to the Camp Zeist compound.

They arrived in darkness aboard separate helicopters which landed on a football pitch at the back of the former air base which has been declared UK territory for the duration of the trial.

Each of the accused, head covered, handcuffed and wearing body armour, was greeted by two Scottish police officers while armed colleagues looked on from the perimeter fence.

The Libyans were accompanied on their flight to the Netherlands by the chief legal counsel to the United Nations, Hans Corell.

He told a news conference that neither man had showed any signs of anxiety.

Mr Corell said: "Each of them had a brother on board and they had their two lawyers.

"There were conversations between them and also there were conversations between our security people and of course the purpose was to create an atmosphere of, shall we say, a friendly transfer."

Lockerbie trial: enter the accused

[This is the headline over an item on the Scots Law News website. What follows is an excerpt:]

As expected, on 5 April 1999 the two Libyans accused of planting the bomb aboard the Pam Am jet which exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 (Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah) were given over to the custody of Scottish authorities at Kamp van Zeist near Utrecht in the Netherlands. On 6 April they were accused of murder and remanded in custody before Sheriff Graham Cox, and committed for a trial which will take place in the Netherlands before three Scottish judges and in accordance with Scots law. The prosecution is expected to apply for an extension to the 110-day rule, under which the trial would normally commence within that period.

[RB: An account of the arrest of Abdelbaset Megrahi at Zeist by the Scottish police officer who carried it out can be read here.]

Scottish prosecutors in secret meeting with Libyans about al‑Megrahi and Lockerbie

[This is the headline over a report in today’s edition of The Sunday Times. It
reads in part:]

A clandestine meeting between the Crown Office and Libyan officials has taken place as part

of efforts to bring those behind the Lockerbie bombing to justice.

The Sunday Times has learnt that Scottish prosecutors want to interview at least one suspect

about the 1988 atrocity, and they met their Libyan counterparts in March to enlist their help.
It is understood the suspect may be linked to the purchase of a suitcase that concealed the
bomb. The Crown maintains that the suitcase was loaded onto a plane in Malta and
transferred onto Pan Am flight 103, which took off from Heathrow for New York. (...)

Scottish prosecutors maintain that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who was accused of buying

clothes in Malta that were packed in the suitcase, did not act alone and have vowed to bring
his accomplices to justice. Megrahi is the only person convicted of the bombing.

According to a diplomatic source, Libyan officials visited the UK at the invitation of

Scottish prosecutors and are “keen” to assist the Lockerbie investigation.

“Megrahi is regarded as unfinished business because the inquests determined that he

was not acting by himself,” said the source.

“Investigators have been looking at the people who were involved in the purchase of

a bag in Malta. This is something they have been trying to follow up and they have
leads which still need to be fully explored.”

He added: “Police Scotland have been pursuing the possibility of questioning

individuals in Libya and they have some information relating to an individual ... They
will be looking to the prosecutor [to see] if they can be tracked down and interviewed
on their behalf.”

The disclosure follows a decision by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission

(SCCRC) to review Megrahi’s conviction. (...)

The SCCRC said last week that it was in “the interests of justice” to accept the

application by Megrahi’s family. The move has been welcomed by campaigners who
believe Megrahi was innocent. A separate police investigation into claims that
prosecutors, police and forensic officials perverted the course of justice is expected
to conclude shortly.

The Crown Office declined to comment.

[RB: A comment by John Cameron under this article on The Sunday Times website reads as follows:]

My Italian friends were deeply embarrassed by the judicial shenanigans of the Meredith

Kercher murder trial which showed their nation's Byzantine legal system at its worst.
But the fact is the Italian system was self-correcting and in the end, the manifestly innocent
students Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were released.

The conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi for the Pan Am bombing raised a similar international

outcry. From the UN observer to Nelson Mandela, from the UK relatives' leader Dr Swire to
the Scottish churches, from his prison inmates and staff to every journalist who investigated
the case, no-one believed he was guilty.

Megrahi and co-defendant Lamin Fhimah were remanded into custody by my dear old friend, the late Sheriff Graham Cox in whose jurisdiction Lockerbie lay. He later confided, "I'm sure they've got the wrong men" adding that in the event of a miscarriage of justice, the Scottish judiciary was "too small and too inbred" to sort it out.

We shall see!

First appearance of Megrahi and Fhimah in Scottish court

[On this date in 1999 Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Fhimah made their first appearance in a Scottish court. What follows is excerpted from a report by Ian Black in The Guardian:]

Two Libyans accused of murder and conspiracy in connection with the Lockerbie bombing yesterday made their first appearance before a Scottish court which has been convened in the Netherlands.

Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi, aged 46, and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, aged 42, allegedly Libyan intelligence agents, were charged in a hearing before Graham Cox, sheriff principal of Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway. They will be committed for trial on April 15.

Before the arraignment at Camp Zeist, a former US air base now under Scottish jurisdiction, officials spent two hours reading out to the men the warrants for their arrest in Arabic and English as well as the names of each of the 270 people who died on Pan Am Flight 103 and on the ground in Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.

The two men were remanded in custody at HM Prison Zeist.

The Libyans appeared separately at the five-minute hearing, accompanied by lawyers, UN observers and interpreters. Each spoke once, to say 'yes'' in Arabic to confirm their identities. Both men deny the charges.

The accused left Tripoli on a UN plane on Monday, more than seven years after first being indicted in Scotland and the US.

Yesterday Scottish police were fingerprinting, photographing them and taking DNA samples.

Monday's handover marked the end of a diplomatic and legal struggle to bring the alleged bombers to court. It has led to the suspension of the UN sanctions on Libya imposed in 1992 to force their surrender. The Security Council has said it would consider lifting the sanctions altogether if Libya publicly renounces terrorism and complies with other UN demands.

British firms are now waiting to resume potentially lucrative trading links with Libya, but both the Foreign Office and the Department of Trade and Industry warned yesterday that the formality of lifting sanctions could take months to complete.

The British Libyan Business Group, a lobbying organisation, said that it was planning a direct flight to Libya to 'fly the flag and open negotiations for major business development'. Lord Steel, the Liberal peer, and MPs Teddy Taylor and Tam Dalyell are among the public figures being invited to join it.

Italian and French firms, competing for the lion's share of the Libyan market, are already planning similar promotional flights. (...)

In 1992 the value of British exports to Libya was £228 million while £162 million worth of goods were imported. Most British exports were industrial machinery and equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemical materials and products and electrical appliances. The main imports were petroleum products and organic chemicals.

In another clear sign that Libya wants to move quickly back to business as usual, Libyan Arab Airlines said yesterday it was considering resuming international flights after the lifting of the UN flight ban.

But a long legal haul is only just beginning. Under Scottish law, the trial should start in 110 days but lawyers for the accused are expected to ask for an extension to give them more time to prepare their defence, which could delay the trial's start by between six months and a year.

The Zeist trial is to be heard, uniquely, by a three-judge panel but no jury. It is expected to last a year or longer. If convicted, the suspects will serve their sentences in Barlinnie jail, Glasgow, Scotland's highest-security prison, with the unprecedented privilege of being under permanent observation by UN monitors.

Flight to disaster

[This is the headline over a report that appeared on the BBC News website on this date in 2000. It reads as follows:]

BBC Scotland home affairs correspondent Reevel Alderson reports on how the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster became a murder inquiry

The police operation which began on 21 December, 1988, is the biggest ever mounted in Scotland.

Initial activity in the darkness of the longest night of the year was concentrated on finding out if there were any survivors - and establishing the extent of the destruction in the town of Lockerbie.

A week after the crash, on 28 December, the police investigation turned into a murder inquiry when the government's Air Accident Investigation Branch announced that a bomb had been responsible for the tragedy.

A painstaking search for debris and the belongings of the 257 people on the jumbo jet "Clipper Maid of the Seas" had become a search for clues.

It stretched for 100 sq. miles east of Lockerbie, across the English border as far as the Kielder Forest.

Initial forensic examination of the debris revealed further details about the bomb which had devastated the aircraft 30,000 ft above Lockerbie.

By 16 February,1989, the man leading the inquiry, detective superintendent John Orr was able to reveal in which part of the baggage hold the bomb had been - and in what luggage.

Further evidence emerged during the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) in Dumfries before Sheriff Principal John Mowat QC, between October 1990 and February 1991.

An FAI is held in Scotland in cases where a sudden death requires investigation. There is no jury, and its purpose is to discover how a death arose - and most importantly - if lessons can be learned to prevent a repetition.

In his determination, issued in February, 1991, Sheriff Mowat said the Samsonite suitcase containing the bomb - along with other baggage from the Frankfurt flight - had not been properly checked or x-rayed at Heathrow.

His conclusion was: "The primary cause of the deaths was the criminal act of murder."

This had been the first involvement of the Scottish judicial system in the aftermath of the bombing.

The evidence available to the FAI formed part of the Crown case for any eventual prosecution.

On 14 November, 1991, an announcement was made in Edinburgh, by the senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, indicting Abdel Baset Ali Mohammed el-Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhima, on three charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and contravention of international aviation laws.

That announcement was made simultaneously in Washington. The United States and the UK had agreed that the two men, described as agents of the Libyan Intelligence Services, should be tried by a court either in the US or Scotland.

Until the indictment and warrant for the arrest of the two men, international focus had been on a Syrian-backed group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command).

Now international diplomatic efforts were targeted at the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and on 27 November, 1991, Britain and the US formally asked for the extradition of the two men.

There followed almost seven years of diplomatic wrangling and obstruction before hope emerged that an end could be found to the impasse.

UN resolution 731 passed on 21 January, 1992, called on Libya to collaborate with international investigators.

When it failed to do so, UN resolution 748 of 31 March imposed an air and arms embargo on the Libyans.

By resolution 883 of November, 1993, further sanctions were imposed by the UN, including the freezing of Libyan assets in foreign banks and an embargo on exporting oil industry-related equipment there.

Throughout the 1990s a number of initiatives took place, aimed at bringing the two Libyan suspects to trial.

These ranged from a hearing at an international court - rejected as "impractical" by Britain and the US - to a suggestion by the Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, Robert Black, that the trial could be held in a neutral country whilst retaining Scots rules of evidence and procedure.

Professor Black travelled to Tripoli on a number of occasions, along with Scots lawyers engaged by Megrahi and Fhimah.

On 24 August, 1998, following strenuous diplomatic efforts by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the Arab League, as well as the outgoing President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, London and Washington made a formal offer to Libya.

It was for a trial of the two suspects in the Netherlands under Scots law.

Tripoli accepted the proposal but demanded sanctions should be lifted.

The proposals were for a trial to be held in the Netherlands before a panel of three Scottish judges, and without the jury, which would normally hear a criminal trial.

With that exception, the trial would be carried out exactly as any other before the Scottish High Court.

There remained concerns of the accused and their lawyers, but on 5 April, 1999, the two men were flown in a United Nations plane from Libya the Dutch military airbase of Valkenburg, near The Hague.

After a short extradition process, they were taken by helicopter under armed guard to Camp van Zeist, home of the Dutch air force museum where, on 14 April, they were formally committed for trial by Sheriff Principal Graham Cox QC.

Under normal circumstances under Scots law, a trial of a serious matter - under "solemn" procedure - must begin 110 days from the date of committal.

It is open to either the defence or the Crown to seek an adjournment.

Given the extraordinary circumstances of this case, two adjournments were granted [and the trial began on 3 May, 2000].

It is taking place in a court and prison complex built at a cost of £12m at Camp Zeist. Special facilities have been provided, including a bullet-proof glass screen separating the public from those in the court.

The judges' benches, and those of the defence and prosecution teams, are equipped with high-tech monitors allowing them to see documents and those giving evidence.

They have laptop computers giving them a simultaneous transcription of the proceedings, and headphones allowing the judges and the lawyers to hear translators working in English and Arabic.

The total bill for providing the facilities, guarding the two accused - said to be £2m a month - and the legal costs, will come to at least £150m by the time it is over.

For the families of the 270 victims of the bombing, the cost of justice is immeasurable, and the only thing which matters is that the facts of the case are made public.