Document:Justice for Megrahi is gonna happen!
| Aamer Anwar said: "I have no doubt that the new democratic Libyan Government headed by Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba will support this final appeal for justice on behalf of the Al-Megrahi family and help in our efforts to prove the innocence of Libya and its people." |
Letter by Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies dated 14 April 2021Subjects: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Pan Am Flight 103/The Trial, Aamer Anwar, Ali Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba, UK Supreme Court, Bernt Carlsson
Source: Wikispooks
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Aamer Anwar & Co.
63 Carlton Place
GLASGOW
Scotland G5 9TW
14th April 2021
Dear Mr Anwar,
Contents
Justice for Megrahi is gonna happen!
On 3 June 2013, I posted an article headed "Why Megrahi's Lockerbie appeal had to be dropped" on the Justice For Al-Megrahi group's Facebook page:[1]
$810 million legal fees
"There were at least 810 million reasons why Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's appeal against his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing had to be dropped.
"If Megrahi's second appeal (authorised by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission) had gone ahead, his conviction would almost certainly have been overturned.
"The $2.7 billion compensation package that Muammar Gaddafi had paid to the 270 Lockerbie victims' families would then have had to be returned to Libya.
"But US lawyers representing the Lockerbie families had already helped themselves to 30 per cent of that $2.7 billion as contingency fees: a mere $810 million. Since those lawyers had no intention of paying back any of the money, Megrahi's appeal had to be dropped!"
My figures were based on this article in The Scotsman of 6 December 2003:[2]
The US law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which represented 128 of the families of Lockerbie victims, could expect to receive up to $384 million out of a total $810 million in contingency fees from the $2.7 billion compensation package offered by Libya to the 270 victims' families. Kreindler's fees of 30 per cent would therefore reduce each family's $10 million compensation payment by $3 million, leaving a balance of just $7 million.
The same article said that another law firm, Speizer Crowse, which represented 60 families (30 of them British), could net legal fees amounting to $180 million.
Allan Gerson and his colleagues Frank Duggan and Mark Zaid represented most if not all of the remaining 82 Lockerbie families. Gerson's team could thus have shared, between the three of them, as much as $246 million in contingency fees.
"The compensation deal calls for Libya to pay each victim's family $4 million when UN sanctions against Libya are lifted, another $4 million when the United States lifts its own sanctions against the country, and $2 million when Libya is removed from the US State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism," said Mark Zaid, an attorney representing more than 50 relatives of victims.
Mark Zaid's reasoned opinion
On 4 June 2013, Mark Zaid reacted by emailing Patrick Haseldine (copying to Buck Revell, Richard Marquise and Frank Duggan) as follows:
Patrick -
"Once again you are promoting untruths. I don't know if you authored this bio-piece on my colleague Allan Gerson or not but you/they have it all wrong on the settlement. You should not assume all the lawyers received 30% because they did not. Nor was there any clause in the settlement agreement, or any legal requirement anywhere, that would have returned the $2.7 billion dollars, regardless of the ultimate result of the appeal.
"Instead of 810 million reasons why Al-Megrahi dropped his appeal, I will give you one: he was guilty.
"BTW, I wish I had received the amount of fees believed as I would be retired now!!!!!!
"Mark"
My reply
On 5 June 2013, Patrick Haseldine published this email in reply:
"Dear Mark,
"I calculate that Allan Gerson's team (including you and Frank Duggan) could have shared as much as $246 million in Lockerbie contingency fees.
"Please let us know exactly how much of Muammar Gaddafi's money you personally received.
"Regards,
"Patrick Haseldine, Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies"
Mark Zaid returns to the charge
On 1 April 2021, after five Scottish Judges refused Ali Abdelbaset al-Megrahi permission to take the posthumous appeal against his father's Lockerbie bombing conviction to the UK Supreme Court,[4] Mark Zaid tweeted:
"Good news out of Scotland in #PanAm103/#Lockerbie case.
"We're closer to finally having this legal effort end.
"#Megrahi was convicted of murdering 270 innocent ppl in 2001, released in 2009 & died in 2012. His family have continued to pursue his exoneration.
"Not gonna happen."[5]
Lockerbie campaigner Patrick Haseldine tweeted in response:
"#AliAlMegrahi, who promised to clear his father's name, is to appeal directly to the #UKSupremeCourt.[6]
"That's gonna happen.
"Hope you'll support my petition when #Megrahi's conviction is overturned: 'Why doesn't Scotland Yard launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry?'"[7]
"Not gonna happen"[8]
JUSTICE FOR MEGRAHI IS GONNA HAPPEN!
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Haseldine
PS. As previously, a copy goes to Private Eye magazine.
References
- ↑ "Why Megrahi's Lockerbie appeal had to be dropped"
- ↑ "Lockerbie lawyer says £200m fee is 'good value'"
- ↑ "Libya, Families of Victims of Pan Am 103 Bombing Agree on $2.7B Compensation Fund"
- ↑ "Judges reject Lockerbie bomber family's bid to appeal to UK's highest court"
- ↑ "Megrahi's son refused leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court"
- ↑ "Ali al-Megrahi, who promised to clear his father's name, is to appeal directly to the UK Supreme Court"
- ↑ "Why doesn't Scotland Yard launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry?"
- ↑ "Not gonna happen"
Postscript
Media comment
The editor of News Junkie Post, John Goss, emailed this comment:
"Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was not guilty. No reasonable person believes he was today. Even dissenters from Patrick Haseldine's speculations do not believe al-Megrahi had anything to do with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
"Libya was probably not involved at all. Gaddafi only coughed up because he respected the findings of the court. Not a shred of evidence links Libya with the bombing that I know of, but I know that Bernt Carlsson was on that flight, and to my mind the place to start looking is those with the most to lose if Namibia had been given independent mining rights (what Carlsson was trying to engineer).
"Did anybody investigate South Africa, or the United States, as likely bombers?
"Everything centred on a Western-created pariah with a lot of high-quality oil."
"Wilfully blind"
The former site owner of Wikispooks, Peter Presland, offered this emailed explanation:
"Thanks Patrick,
"You really would have to be wilfully blind to contend that sums of money like that (and the millions paid to secure star witness 'evidence') had/have no effect the outcome, reporting, understanding and continuing official obfuscation of all things Lockerbie, eh?
"Best,
