The dad of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing has called on the UK Government to release secret documents relating to the atrocity.
Saturday marks the 36th anniversary of the terrorist attack, which claimed 270 lives four days before Christmas in 1988. Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on the Pan Am plane, says Keir Starmer’s government can no longer justify withholding information on the case.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Swire said: “One thing we can do is ask the government of today to release all the documentation about Lockerbie. That would be a tremendous help. Here we are, 36 years down the road, and we know a lot of material has been kept out of public view. Why isn’t it in the public interest to release it after 36 years? I think that’s something a lot of people would think is pretty fishy.”
The call comes as Abu Agila Masud is set to stand trial in Washington in May next year, accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over the Dumfries and Galloway town.
Masud is alleged by US authorities to have worked alongside Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, the only individual ever convicted over the bombing. Megrahi was found guilty by a Scottish court in the Netherlands and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, dying of cancer in 2012.
Dr Swire, however, has long believed that the real culprits were members of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), who he claims acted in retaliation for the US Navy’s downing of an Iranian passenger jet earlier in 1988.
His theory, he argues, is backed by evidence. Two months before the bombing, German police uncovered a PFLP-GC cell in Frankfurt, seizing explosive devices disguised as radios. The feeder flight for Pan Am 103 originated from Frankfurt.
Despite this, investigators shifted focus to Libya, claiming the bomb had been smuggled onto a plane in Malta in an unaccompanied suitcase. It went through the luggage system at Frankfurt and was loaded onto Pan Am 103 at Heathrow.
A fragment of a Swiss-made bomb timer was recovered from the wreckage, which prosecutors alleged had been supplied to Libyan intelligence. Dr Swire, however, insists that “top notch British experts” have proven the fragment did not come from such timers, a finding he says would fatally undermine the case against Libya and Megrahi.
In 2020, then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to release certain documents related to the case, citing concerns over national security. Scotland’s appeal court ruled that their limited value to the defence did not outweigh the public interest.
Dr Swire, now 88, has been a vocal critic of the official narrative. His stance, which includes meeting with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi and befriending Megrahi, has divided victims’ families.
Some, particularly in the US, have expressed anger, including over a forthcoming TV drama about the bombing called Lockerbie: A Search for Truth. The series is based on Dr Swire’s book Lockerbie: A Father’s Search for Justice. Yet Dr Swire remains resolute, stating: “The more people look at what happened at Lockerbie the happier I’ll be.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 was truly abhorrent and the government’s deepest sympathies remain with the victim’s families and loved ones. We do not comment on the contents of archive files, but follow the process of opening files as set out in public record legislation.”
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