Victim's father claims documentary maker is 'Libyan dupe' Bitter attack on Lockerbie film

that his soon-to-be completed work on the destruction of PanAm flight

103 will make startling new revelations about the identity and

background of the bombers.

In a letter in today's Herald, Mr Daniel Cohen, whose daughter

Theodora was among the 270 people who died when the jetliner was bombed

in December 1988, accuses Mr Francovich of being a ''Libyan dupe'' who

is ''at best a journeyman film maker''.

The Herald reported last week that Mr Francovich's film was nearing

completion. He maintained then that his efforts were being thwarted by a

campaign to diminish his efforts and to undermine his professional

standing.

He said anyone who challenged the official version of events, which

was that the jet was bombed by the two Libyans subsequently charged by

the Scottish and American authorities, was subjected to a tirade of

abuse and harassment in the US.

Mr Francovich felt that the campaign was linked to Western

intelligence agencies and also to the civil litigation involving PanAm

and many relatives in the US courts.

However, Mr Cohen's position is at variance with that adopted by

another relative, English GP Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora also

died on flight 103. Last week, Dr Swire wrote to The Herald commending

any attempt to investigate the affair further.

Yesterday, he said: ''I am sorry that the Cohens have taken this

attitude but they lost a daughter at Lockerbie, as I did, and because of

that I can forgive them anything. However, Allan Francovich, in the

absence of anything else, is at least making the effort to inquire

further and to challenge the current situation. Nobody else is doing

that. Why not let him get on with it and then judge him on whatever he

comes up with?''

Dr Swire, who is a leading campaigner on behalf of British relatives,

added that the reason the affair was still wide open to speculation was

because there had not been a trial of the two Libyans. ''However, the

thing that makes me most angry about this whole affair is that there is

continuing evidence to suggest that Western intelligence agencies were

warned about what was going to happen. Francovich says he has hard

evidence to this effect,'' he said.

''If it is true, I want the Western intelligence agencies to know that

they can't just play about with evidence like this as if it was of no

importance because at the end of the day a lot of people died.''

In Paris yesterday where he was continuing to work on the film,

provisionally entitled Maltese Double Cross, Mr Francovich said the

charges which Mr Cohen had levelled against him were those he had often

made since filming started last autumn.

''He mentions my reputation as a film maker. Well it is probably not

for me to say but my work has been shown at film festivals all over the

world. I have won prestigious awards and my films have been shown on BBC

and Channel 4.

''He says that our negotiations with Channel 4 for broadcasting the

Lockerbie film were thwarted because we had been 'bragging' about the

film. Frankly, that is nonsense. The negotiations were discreet in the

extreme and I still maintain that they became public by means of

telephone surveillance and because of a campaign mounted by someone

acting on behalf of certain relatives' interests in the US,'' said Mr

Francovich.

''Mr Cohen says that the British Government has never said that they

were going to ban the film.

''Well, it wasn't me who originally said that they had. These were

stories printed in the Scottish press quoting unnamed Government

sources.''

Mr Francovich has also been accused by Mr Cohen of being funded by the

Libyans. This follows the revelation that the Lonrho subsidiary which Mr

Francovich says commissioned the film was itself partly funded by the

Libyan Arab Finance Company.

Mr Francovich said yesterday: ''I can only say this over and over

again. This is not a pro-Gaddafi film and the public will be able to

come to their own conclusions when it is shown. Frankly, this assertion

is probably actionable and it may well be that our production company's

lawyers will have to take legal action if the Cohens continue with this

campaign against me.''