FBI ordered McKie case ’swept under carpet’

THE FBI met senior members of Scotland’s forensic service to ensure the Shirley McKie affair was “swept under the carpet” and so avoid any embarrassment in the run-up to the Lockerbie trial, according to an investigator into the bombing.

Juval Aviv, who was Pan Am’s senior Lockerbie investigator, said officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation travelled to Scotland to pressure the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) into a swift resolution of the McKie fingerprint case.

Mr Aviv said that during discussions with two senior members of staff in the fingerprint laboratory at SCRO in 1999 or 2000, both told him they had misgivings over the evidence against Ms McKie but had been urged to “fall in line with the evidence”.

Campaigners and politicians, some of whom will tomorrow hold a press conference on the possible links between the two cases, said Mr Aviv’s revelation reinforced the urgent need for a public inquiry into the whole McKie affair.

The SCRO admitted last night that the FBI met its officers to talk about Lockerbie but vehemently denied any comments were made about the McKie case.

Mr Aviv’s accusations centre on an intense period of activity leading up to the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

Part of the case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi involved a contentious fingerprint lifted from a travel document in Malta. The fingerprint had only 12 matching points to suspected bomber Megrahi; many courts require 16 matching points. Although the SCRO had nothing to do with identifying it, the credibility of the fingerprint was important.

In 1999, a year before the trial was due to get under way at Kamp van Zeist, the McKie controversy blew up.

The Strathclyde policewoman had been put on trial for perjury after denying she had left a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. However, scores of international fingerprint experts said the disputed print was not hers and she was acquitted. The revelation put at risk the credibility of Scotland’s fingerprint service.

Mr Aviv said it was about this time the FBI flew to Scotland. “I heard about the [McKie] case and FBI putting pressure on the labs. I received phone calls from sources within the fingerprint lab saying the FBI visited Scotland and met with people in charge to discuss falling in line with the [McKie] evidence. They met several times and they co-ordinated actions.”

He went on: “[The SCRO] was under pressure from the FBI to manufacture evidence to suit this trial and convict the Libyan. [The FBI told it] any scandal that could taint this evidence could really interfere with Lockerbie and should be put under the carpet.” Mr Aviv said the FBI visit was part of a larger effort to gain consensus among Scottish investigators over Lockerbie evidence. He said: “The sources were appalled. That’s one thing that you do not do - interfere with a court case in The Hague and accuse two people who could get life in prison with manufactured evidence. They [the sources] were fed up with it.”

Mr Aviv would not reveal the SCRO sources nor allow The Scotsman to interview them, despite promises of anonymity. He also refused to provide details of which FBI officers visited Scotland and could not recall the exact date of the visit.

Last month, it was reported that David Grieve and Pat Wertheim, two American fingerprint experts who were consulted in the McKie case, had been told by FBI officials not to speak publicly about the case in the months before the Lockerbie trail.

Shirley McKie’s father, Iain McKie, said yesterday that Mr Aviv’s claims added to a growing body of evidence linking the two cases.

“The only logical explanation for the ordeal my daughter has gone through is that the SCRO was making sure there was nothing to rock the boat before such an important case that also relied on forensic evidence,” he said.

“This new evidence [from Mr Aviv] of cross-fertilisation shows the common cast of characters, in the FBI and SCRO, were indeed linked.”

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, said Mr Aviv’s claims made the case for a public inquiry “overwhelming”.

“These latest allegations reinforce the need for a judicial inquiry,” he said.

“We have no way of knowing whether the allegations can be substantiated, which makes it fundamentally important that a judge is placed in a position to find out.

“It is unfathomable that revelation should follow revelation, and accusation follow accusation, and still there has been no inquiry, which is something just about everyone involved in the case now demands.”

The SNP MSP Alex Neil said: “This revelation makes the case for an inquiry absolutely compelling. If ministers knew about this, they should have disclosed it to parliament earlier. If they did not, it begs the question as to how much they did know and how much they were kept in the dark by the SCRO.”

Jim Swire, whose daughter died in the Lockerbie bombing and who believes Megrahi was wrongly convicted, said Mr Aviv’s claims were consistent with a general pattern.

He said: “Juval Aviv’s comments seem to tally with previous reports that there may have been pressure brought on the SCRO by the FBI, which might have amounted to, or contributed to, a perversion of the course of justice in the McKie case, and that this pressure may have been motivated by an improper attempt to protect the interests of the burgeoning Lockerbie case at the time.”

Yesterday, a spokesman for the SCRO said: “SCRO can confirm that a fingerprint expert did visit the FBI around those dates. The purpose of this visit was to look at methods for court preparation, training and third-level detail, and was totally unrelated to the McKie case. At no time during this visit was the case of Shirley McKie discussed or the name ‘McKie’ mentioned.

“SCRO was not involved in any way with the fingerprinting of the Lockerbie disaster. The recent speculation about a link between the cases is without foundation.”

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “If any person said anything of this nature it was not on the authority of anyone connected with the prosecution. There was no connection between the cases and no involvement of SCRO.

“As the Lord Advocate said in parliament on 22 February, the suggestion that the decision-making in the cases was in any way connected is deeply offensive to all those involved. It is entirely without foundation.”

The parallel cases
McKie
• January 1997: Marion Ross is found stabbed to death in her home in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.

• February 1997: Four Scottish Criminal Record officers claim a rogue fingerprint at the crime scene belongs to Mckie.

• June 1997: David Asbury, a 21-year-old joiner, is jailed for the killing. McKie denies ever visiting the crime scene.

• February 1999: McKie is charged by police for lying during the trial.

• 15 May,1999: McKie is cleared of perjury after two American specialists demolished the evidence of the SCRO experts.

• December 1999: Discharged from police on medical grounds and wins her full pension.

• September 2001 Lord Advocate claims there isn’t enough evidence to press charges against the SCRO workers.

• December 2003: McKie allowed to take civil case against Scottish Executive.

• April 2004: Strathclyde Police demand £23,000 in legal costs after McKie’s bid to sue the force fails.

• February 2006: Scottish Executive pay £750,000 in out-of-court settlement ahead of a hearing at the court of session.

Lockerbie
• The Libyans confirm that they would accept a trial in a neutral country, operating under Scottish law.

• 21 July, 1998: Britain and the US agree that the two suspects can be tried in The Hague under Scottish law.

• 19 March, 1999: Nelson Mandela arranges for the Lockerbie suspects to be surrendered on or before 6 April.

• April 1999: Suspects taken into Dutch custody after flying to an airbase near The Hague. Sanctions suspended.

• February 2000: The suspects formally plead not guilty to the charges.

May 2000: The trial begins at Kamp van Zeist, in the Netherlands.

• 31 January, 2001: A panel of three judges unanimously find Megrahi guilty and jail him for life. Mr Fhimah is acquitted.

• March 2002: Megrahi loses his appeal against conviction.

• September 2003: Lawyers for Megrahi apply to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for a review of conviction.

EBEN HARRELL