LOCKERBIE campaigner Jim Swire hit back yesterday after the lawyer who began the prosecution against the alleged bombers claimed that the bereaved father is behaving like a Stockholm syndrome sufferer and is "too close" to the campaign to clear Abdelbaset al Megrahi.
LOCKERBIE campaigner Jim Swire hit back yesterday after the lawyer who began the prosecution against the alleged bombers claimed that the bereaved father is behaving like a Stockholm syndrome sufferer and is "too close" to the campaign to clear Abdelbaset al Megrahi.
Lord Fraser of Carmyllie was Lord Advocate in 1991 when he drew up the indictment against al Megrahi, accusing him of carrying out the atrocity.
Since losing his daughter, Flora, in the attack, Mr Swire, a retired GP, has become a leading spokesman on behalf of affected UK families.
He has also campaigned for the release of al Megrahi, and is convinced of his innocence.
Telling a Sunday newspaper yesterday that he had no doubts about the conviction, Lord Fraser said: "In a sense it doesn't matter what I think. It matters even less what Jim Swire thinks. He may be good at medicine, but it doesn't follow that he's any good at law.
"I'm concerned that he has got a bit too close to it. It is like Stockholm syndrome. He has perhaps got a bit too close to what's going on. But I do feel very sorry for him, it must be most unpleasant to lose a daughter."
However, Mr Swire said: "It is interesting to find that Lord Peter Fraser suggests I am suffering from Stockholm syndrome, a condition where surviving victims of terrorist outrages take up the cause of those who have attacked them.
"Since he did not accuse me of also being one apple short of a picnic', maybe I can be allowed to make a rational further contribution to the debate.
"I would have preferred that such matters were not raised on the back of an anniversary where relatives need to remember with gladness the lives of those they lost. But I am determined that my daughter's horrible death shall not be associated with anything other than truth and justice."
