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Sunday 10 December 2023 Dublin: 10°C
Jim Swire does not believe that al-Megrahi is guilty of the attack
Lockerbie

Father of Lockerbie victim meets Megrahi in Libya

Jim Swire, who lost his daughter in the Lockerbie bombing, has travelled to Libya to speak with the man convicted of the atrocity.

THE FATHER OF a woman who died in the bombing of Pan AM flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, has travelled to Libya to speak with the only person ever convicted of the attack.

Jim Swire’s 24-year-old daughter Flora died in the 1988 attack, which claimed the lives of 270 people. However, Swire does not believe that the man convicted of the atrocity, Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, is guilty.

Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, was released from Scotland’s Greenock prison last year on compassionate grounds after doctors said that he had just three months left to live.

Megrahi invited Swire to Libya; the two men last met in 2008 in Greenock prison.

74-year-old Swire said that Megrahi looked better than he would have expected, saying:

I was very relieved to see him as well as he was. He is a very sick man but he can get out of bed and walk though not very far.

He also told Scotland’s Daily Record:

We met as brother members of the human race and seekers of a common goal – the re-examination of the available evidence which led to a verdict we believe was reached under political pressure rather than the rules of justice.

In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said there were six grounds where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred concerning Megrahi’s conviction.

He was given a chance to clear his name, but dropped his appeal shortly before being granted release by the Scottish on compassionate grounds.