However Briton Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, said Megrahi's death was a "very sad event". Swire, a member of the Justice for Megrahi group, said: "I met him face-to-face in Tripoli in December last year, when he was very sick and in a lot of pain.
"But he still wanted to talk to me about how information which he and his defence team have accumulated could be passed to me after his death." Swire added: "Right up to the end he was determined – for his family's sake, he knew it was too late for him – how the verdict against him should be overturned".
A joint statement from Justice for Megrahi – signed by 42 public figures and journalists including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former BBC chief news correspondent Kate Adie, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Scotland's most senior Catholic, and Professor Noam Chomsky – demanded an independent inquiry into Megrahi's conviction. His prosecution was based on "a fantastical tale" with no direct or forensic evidence to support a tenuous circumstantial case, they said.
Three judges who tried the case without a jury at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands were under "tremendous pressure" to return their guilty verdict of January 2001. "The prosecution case against [Megrahi] held water like a sieve … We have accusations of the key witness having been bribed for testimony; a multitude of serious question marks over material evidence, including the very real possibility of the crucial fragment of printed circuit board [from the bomb] having been fabricated; discredited forensic scientists testifying for the prosecution; crown witness testimony being retracted after the trial and, most worryingly, allegations of the crown's non-disclosure of evidence which could have been key to the defence."
"But he still wanted to talk to me about how information which he and his defence team have accumulated could be passed to me after his death." Swire added: "Right up to the end he was determined – for his family's sake, he knew it was too late for him – how the verdict against him should be overturned".
A joint statement from Justice for Megrahi – signed by 42 public figures and journalists including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former BBC chief news correspondent Kate Adie, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Scotland's most senior Catholic, and Professor Noam Chomsky – demanded an independent inquiry into Megrahi's conviction. His prosecution was based on "a fantastical tale" with no direct or forensic evidence to support a tenuous circumstantial case, they said.
Three judges who tried the case without a jury at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands were under "tremendous pressure" to return their guilty verdict of January 2001. "The prosecution case against [Megrahi] held water like a sieve … We have accusations of the key witness having been bribed for testimony; a multitude of serious question marks over material evidence, including the very real possibility of the crucial fragment of printed circuit board [from the bomb] having been fabricated; discredited forensic scientists testifying for the prosecution; crown witness testimony being retracted after the trial and, most worryingly, allegations of the crown's non-disclosure of evidence which could have been key to the defence."
