| Lord Peter Fraser, Lord Advocate of Scotland |
Scotland's Chief Law officer during the 1989 investigation. At the November 1991 world televised announcement of the indictments of Fhimah and Al-Megrahi, Fraser claimed "We have witnesses who will prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. " But in 2005 Fraser admitted to journalists that he knew throughout that the chief identification witness, Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, was unreliable. "Gauci was not quite the full shilling. I think even his family would say [that he] was an apple short of a picnic. I don't think he was deliberately lying, but if you asked him the same question three times he would just get irritated and refuse to answer. You do have to worry. He's a slightly simple chap, are you putting words into his mouth, even if you don't intend to." Fraser did not mention the reward that Tony Gauci received for his evidence. Tony received $2 million. His brother Paul received $1 million. The cover story by British and American investigators was that this was for "witness protection". Yet since then Gauci and his brother have lived openly in Malta. They occasionally complain of media harrassment. Security improvements have been implemented in the form of "more CCTV cameras". In 2008 Fraser became even more candid: "Could the CIA have planted the evidence?" asked a Times journalist. "I don't know" said Fraser. "No one ever came to see me and and said 'Now we can go for the Libyans.' It was never as straightforward as that. The CIA were extremely subtle." "So what is your own view?" pressed the journalist. Fraser cited the case of Patrick Meehan, freed on appeal, in which it was alleged that the prosecution case had been "improved" by the planting of evidence. "So, was there a similarity?" "I don't know" said Fraser. He later confided to Tam Dalyell MP: "If there was a conspiracy, then I am in it up to the neck. I have to be involved. The only other possibility is that I have been so naive, that bits of evidence have been planted, and I have swallowed it hook, line and sinker." Home... |
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| Sunday Times Scotland |