: Iraqi double agent named as Lockerbie bomber

: 06/05/2001 THE SUNDAY HERALD (Scotland)

: A ROGUE spy has identified an Iraqi agent working for British
: military intelligence as a new suspect in the Lockerbie
: bombing, ...

: US judge Eileen O'Neill once ruled that ex-president George
: Bush could be subpoenaed during an investigation into
: Barbouti, who is routinely described as a 'mysterious
: dealmaker'....

Wednesday August 8 1:15 PM ET

Top Lawyers Join Lockerbie Appeal

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Two leading international civil rights lawyers have joined the appeal to free the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted in January of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 107, is being held at a special Scottish prison at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, pending his appeal.

Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz and leading British human rights advocate Michael Mansfield have now stepped in to bolster his case.

Dershowitz, writing in the Scotsman newspaper on Wednesday, said he had become concerned that the legal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt had not been met.

He also feared that ``The wrong man may well have been convicted of the crime and the real mass murderer may not have been charged.''

Mansfield is helping the defense team.

Susan Cohen of New Jersey in the United States, whose daughter was one of the 270 people killed in the bombing, accused the lawyers of spreading propaganda on behalf of Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi.

``As a victim of terrorism, I feel personally betrayed because Dershowitz passes himself off as the hero of victims of terrorism. He is just the opposite,'' she said.

``I am outraged that Gaddafi is hiring these lawyers to spread his propaganda in the United States. There are two reasons why they are doing this -- money and publicity.''

A spokesman for Scotland's Crown Office said it was unlikely that Megrahi's appeal would come up before next year.

If it is granted, a full hearing before a panel of five Scottish judges will take place.

If Megrahi wishes, the hearing will be at Camp Zeist. Otherwise, it will take place in the Scottish capital.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation by the court that he serve at least 20 years in a Scottish prison.

A special cell -- dubbed the ``Gaddafi Cafe'' -- has been set aside for him in Glasgow's Barlinnie jail.

His co-accused, Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, was acquitted.

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