Talk:Tony Gauci

The article claims that the details of the CIA payments were published in October 2007. Is there a reference for this? The one on the main page does not seem to be working. I found one from February 2009, but the earlier the better. -- Robin (talk) 01:46, 17 July 2015 (IST)

On 3 October 2007, The Guardian broke the story under the headline "Fresh doubts on Lockerbie conviction":

The key prosecution witness in the Lockerbie bombing trial was allegedly offered a $2m reward in return for giving evidence, raising fresh doubts about the safety of the case. Lawyers for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of murdering 270 people on board Pan Am Flight 103, have evidence that detectives investigating the bombing recommended that Tony Gauci, a shopkeeper from Malta, be given the payment after the case ended.

Mr Gauci's testimony at the trial was crucial to al-Megrahi's conviction. He told the trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands that the Libyan had bought clothes at his shop which the prosecution claimed were packed into the suitcase bomb that exploded over Lockerbie on December 21 1988.

The defence team believe Mr Gauci may have received a larger sum from the US authorities. His role in the case is to be central to al-Megrahi's appeal against his conviction, which the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said was unsafe.

They are to press for full disclosure of these payments, and the release of a potentially vital US document which is thought to cast doubt on official accounts about the timer allegedly used in the bombing, at an appeal hearing next week. The secret document is believed to dispute prosecution claims that al-Megrahi used a digital timer bought from a Swiss company, Mebo, and then planted the bomb on a flight from Malta to Germany - a disclosure which would fatally undermine his conviction.

On 23 February 2008, The Guardian reported that foreign secretary David Miliband had blocked the release of the "secret US document":

The foreign secretary has been accused of interfering in the appeal of the man jailed for the Lockerbie bombing, after he refused to release secret papers which could clear the Libyan. David Miliband has signed a public interest immunity certificate to prevent disclosure, despite a ruling from Scotland's miscarriages of justice commission that the documents suggest Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has been wrongly convicted.

In 1996, secret papers from an unnamed foreign government were given to Scottish police investigating the bombing, which killed 270 passengers, crew and townspeople in Lockerbie in December 1988, but were never disclosed to the Libyan's defence lawyers. Last year, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission returned Megrahi's case to the appeal court after ruling that there were serious weaknesses in his conviction - its concerns strengthened by the contents of the classified documents.

At a hearing in Edinburgh yesterday, Megrahi's lawyers claimed that Scotland's chief prosecutor, the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC, had indicated she wanted to release the documents but was unable to because of objections raised by the foreign secretary's lawyer, the Advocate-General, Neil Davidson QC. ++

Maggie Scott QC, for Megrahi, said the secrecy order raised constitutional issues since it threatened the independence of the Scottish prosecution system.

++ Interesting to note that following the May 2015 General Election, which saw David Cameron returned as Prime Minister of a majority Conservative government, Lockerbie defence lawyer Richard Keen was appointed Advocate-General for Scotland. At the same time, Keen was made a life peer and member of the UK House of Lords.--Patrick Haseldine (talk) 15:13, 17 July 2015 (IST)