Dalyell: claim calls conviction into question

Tam Dalyell has called on the Foreign Office to investigate claims that Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal masterminded the Lockerbie bombing.

Dalyell has called on officials to investigate claims by Atef Abu Bakr - a former associate of the terrorist who is believed to have committed suicide in Baghdad last week.

Atef Abu Bakr claims Nidal told senior members of his group that he had planned the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am jet which left 270 people dead.

Libya's Colonel Gaddafi was blamed by Western governments for the bombing. A Scottish court sitting in Holland last year convicted a former secret service Libyan agent, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi.

Dalyell, who is the Labour MP for Linlithgow, has consistently campaigned for al-Megrahi's release.

He argued that Nidal was the real culprit and maintains al-Megrahi's innocence.

"This is a hugely important development. I have asked people at the Foreign Office to look into this. This should have been brought out at the trial and wasn't which raises questions about al-Megrahi's defence," he told ePolitix.com.

"If Nidal has said that no one else had anything to do with it, where does that leave Mr al-Megrahi? I passionately believe there is an innocent man in Barlinnie jail."

Nidal was one of the most ruthless terrorists to emerge from the Palestinian groups that sprang up in the1960s to fight Israel.

Born Sabri Khalil al-Banna in Palestine he was held responsible for a wave of terrorist attacks starting in the 1970s - including the outrages at the El Al check-ins at Vienna and Rome airports in 1986.

He was also blamed for the killings of several British diplomats and the 1982 shooting of the Israeli ambassador to London.

Intelligence reports say Nidal lived in the countries that both America and Britain believed were sponsors of terrorism including Libya, Syria and Iraq - where it was reported he committed suicide.

Nidal was using Libyan capital, Tripoli, as the base for his headquarters at the time of the Lockerbie bombing and was arrested by Gaddafi in a bid to show he was cracking down on militants.

Over the last few years there had been a number of reports that the terrorist, who was increasingly isolated, had died.

News of the suicide came last week from Palestinian sources in Ramallah. "We simply don't know whether or not Nidal is dead. But this new evidence changes everything," said Dalyell.