Judges in an appeal against the conviction of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing have ordered that protected documents held by the UK Government should be released to the court.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said producing the documents, which are covered by a public immunity certificate, would cause “harm to the United Kingdom Government’s international relations” and “real harm to the national security of the United Kingdom”.
However appeal court judges said they will order the two protectively marked documents (PMDs) to be produced to the court and will hold a hearing to consider the matter before deciding whether they should be disclosed and form part of the grounds of appeal.
An appeal against Megrahi’s conviction was lodged after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred the case to the High Court in March, ruling a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred.
The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York on December 21 1988, killed 270 people in Britain’s largest terrorist atrocity.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Megrahi – found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years – was the only person convicted.
Judges have now granted Megrahi’s son Ali Al-Megrahi permission to proceed with the appeal.
A virtual hearing took place in August before the Lord President Lord Carloway, Lord Justice Clerk Lady Dorrian and Lord Menzies, where the legal team representing the Megrahi family outlined the grounds for their appeal.
In their written opinion, delivered by Lord Carloway this week, the judges allowed the appeal in relation to the argument that “no reasonable jury” could have returned the verdict the court did, and on the grounds of non-disclosure of documents by the Crown.
At the hearing in August, lawyers for Megrahi’s family said it is “in the interest of justice” that the defence get to see the two PMDs.
READ MORE: Lockerbie bombing: Megrahi lawyers start court bid to quash conviction
Mr Raab signed new public immunity certificates that month.
In them he states: “I am satisfied that the production of the documents would cause real harm to the United Kingdom Government’s international relations.
“It would also cause real harm to the national security of the United Kingdom, because of damage to counter-terrorism liaison and intelligence gathering between the United Kingdom and other states.
“The documents were provided in confidence to the United Kingdom Government by another state. Disclosure of the documents would harm the United Kingdom’s international relations with that state.
“It would undermine trust in the United Kingdom of the state whose confidence were disclosed.”
He added disclosing the documents would “raise serious questions in the minds of other governments around the world about the confidentiality of their communications with the United Kingdom Government and therefore their willingness to make such a disclosure commitment”.
Lord Carloway wrote: “In these circumstances, the court considers that it must see the PMDs before reaching a decision.”
READ MORE: Letters: Still hope for justice over Lockerbie
A hearing on the matter will now take place, with special counsel appointed to represent Megrahi’s son.
The judges said only after that hearing can it be decided whether the PMDs should be disclosed and form part of the second ground of appeal.
Megrahi abandoned his initial appeal in 2009, shortly before his release from prison on compassionate grounds. He died in 2012.
The full appeal is scheduled to start on November 24.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel