When I wrote my blog about the impending release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi, the so-called Lockerbie bomber on the 24th August, I made reference to the US Authorities paying the Maltese shopkeeper a ‘bonus’ (or should I have called it a bribe ?) for identifying Megrahi as the man who bought the clothes which had traces of explosive residue on them when the remains of Pan Am 103 were analysed . Now it’s quite clear that although I followed the trial quite closely, I did not have official access to this information, it appeared after I had scoured through reams of on-line documents trying to get a number of independent views on what I thought was a decidedly dodgy trial.
Last Friday, the Guardian newspaper led with the following headline,’ US paid reward to Lockerbie witness’. There followed an expose on the various trial related documents, many of which were never presented and which Megrahi was about to use for his second appeal and which confirmed that funds were paid to the Maltese brothers who ran the shop which reputedly sold Megrahi the clothes in question.
It’s nice to get a scoop – maybe I should have used a big ‘EXCLUSIVE’ banner on my blog in August?
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