by antiaristo » Sun Oct 09, 2005 6:40 am
Two examples that support your contention<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="font-size:small;">Forensic mix-up casts fresh Lockerbie doubt</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <br><br>Tony Thompson<br>Sunday October 9, 2005<br>The Observer <br><br><br>Dramatic new evidence of forensic errors could see the man accused of planting the Lockerbie bomb win a new appeal against his conviction, The Observer has learned. Lawyers acting on behalf of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi are said to have uncovered anomalies suggesting vital evidence used to convict their client came from tests conducted months after the terror attack.<br><br>Pan-Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, when about half a kilo of plastic explosive was detonated in a cargo hold, killing 270 people including 11 on the ground.<br><br>Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, was convicted in January 2001 and sentenced to 27 years in jail after a three-year joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>FBI</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. His co-accused, al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was cleared.<br><br>Fingertip searches of the crash site found fragments of a Samsonite suitcase and parts of a Toshiba radio cassette player as well as several pieces of clothing covered in explosive residue. Investigators claimed both the suitcase and clothing were linked to Megrahi. To prove that the bomb was inside the case, investigators set off a series of explosions using an identical suitcase and contents to check how they would be damaged.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Megrahi's lawyers now believe material produced during these tests was mistakenly presented to the court as if it were the original suitcase. One source told The Observer: 'To say that the evidence recovered from the ground at Lockerbie and the material produced during the tests became mixed up would be something of an understatement. They became thoroughly confused.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>'It casts serious doubts over the prosecution case because certain items that should have been destroyed if they were in the case containing the bomb are now known to have survived the blast.'<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>In one instance a charred Babygro was produced as evidence that it had been used to wrap the bomb. However, new evidence has emerged which suggests the garment was completely undamaged when it was found. Instead, a similar Babygro used during the explosive tests was presented to the court.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Megrahi has always denied involvement in the bombing and claims that he was set up so that Libya would take the blame. A key witness against him was the owner of a clothes shop in Malta where the items in the suitcase were allegedly bought. During the verdict, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>the judges admitted that the owner had failed to make a convincingly positive identification of Megrahi, but said: 'There are situations where a careful witness who will not commit himself beyond saying that there is a close resemblance can be regarded as more reliable and convincing in his identification than a witness who maintains that his identification is 100 per cent certain.'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Megrahi's case is now being examined by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and his legal team believe that the new evidence is strong enough for him to get a retrial.<br><br>The fresh doubts over the forensic evidence are being considered alongside recent claims by an <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>anonymous former Scottish police chief who last month gave Megrahi's lawyers a sworn signed statement claiming that key evidence in the trial was fabricated.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> The officer said that he had expected Megrahi to be acquitted at the trial or on appeal, but came forward when this did not happen.<br><br>After the trial, legal observers from around the world, including senior United Nations officials, expressed disquiet about the verdict. Many believed the true suspects in the case were members of the Syrian-led Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), a terror group backed by Iranian cash. Documents leaked from the US Defence Intelligence Agency two years after the Libyans were identified as the prime suspects still blamed the PFLP-GC.<br><br>Further tests are now set to be conducted to see how the mix-up happened.<br><br>Dr Jim Swire, who led the campaign for justice after losing his daughter, Flora, in the bombing, has also expressed doubts over Megrahi's guilt. 'I am aware there have been doubts about how some of the evidence ... came to be presented in court. It is in all our interests that areas of doubt are thoroughly examined.'<br><br>The Scottish criminal review is not expected to decide whether to refer Megrahi's case to the appeal court until next year at the earliest.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1588101,00.html">observer.guardian.co.uk/u...01,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br>This looks remarkably similar to the manner in which Barry George was set up for the murder of Jill Dando. But I digress. The second example<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="font-size:small;">Ricin jurors attack new terror laws</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <br><br>'Knee-jerk reaction' under fire on BBC programme <br><br>Martin Bright, home affairs editor<br>Sunday October 9, 2005<br>The Observer <br><br><br>Three jurors in the so-called 'ricin trial', whose acquittal of four Algerian terror suspects in April caused deep embarrassment to the government, police and security service, will condemn the government's new terrorism legislation in their first television interviews tonight.<br>It is unusual for jurors to speak to the media after a trial, but they have told The Observer they are furious that a number of the defendants have since been re-arrested and imprisoned without trial.<br><br>Three jurors were interviewed for the BBC's Panorama programme, which examines new counter-terrorism proposals to be put before Parliament this week.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>One juror, speaking anonymously, told the programme: 'Before the trial I had a lot of faith in the authorities to be making the right decisions on my behalf ... having been through this trial I'm very sceptical now as to the real reasons why this new legislation is being pushed through</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.'<br><br>A second added: 'I think they are probably a knee-jerk reaction to the recent terrorist incidents in London ... it's a classic example of the government's need to be seeming to do something to quell comment in the nation at large.'<br><br>The third said measures introduced in response to the 7 July bombings were 'draconian', 'ill-considered' and 'hastily put together'. Home Secretary` Charles Clarke has already been forced to back down in introducing an offence of 'glorifying' terrorism. An arrest will now require evidence of incitement to violence.<br><br>SNIP<br><br>Two jurors told The Observer they were shocked when a number of the men they had freed after a seven-month trial were re-arrested earlier this year. One juror said: 'I was dumbfounded ... During the trial there were clearly different degrees of evidence against different defendants. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>But in a couple of cases, the evidence was so flimsy you couldn't see where the arrest came from in the first place. To re-arrest them seemed totally unreasonable.'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> A female juror added that the trial revealed failures by the authorities: <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>'[There was] poor intelligence, police having misinformation and not really understanding the background, the government willing something along because of the impending war and it gathered its own momentum ... Now they are trying to justify why the arrests happened.'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>SNIP<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The ricin arrests were made at the end of December 2002 and were used in the run-up to war in Iraq to suggest that Britain was under threat from weapons of mass destruction</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. The trial revealed that no traces of ricin has been found in the flat occupied by the suspects in Wood Green, north London.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1588232,00.html">observer.guardian.co.uk/u...32,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>It's all down to the CROWN Prosecution Service.<br>In the old days (see Duke of Wellington in Guardian) there would have been a grand jury of ordinary men and women to return indictments<br><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=antiaristo>antiaristo</A> at: 10/9/05 4:44 am<br></i>