A petition to be heard by the Parliament's Justice Committee from the Justice for Megrahi Committee has recommended that the Lord Advocate, the Justice Minister and the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway police be called to account by the Parliament over their "evasive, unsatisfactory and misleading" responses to prior questions asked of them over the handling of the Pan Am 103 debacle. 

The group state in their submission that "the prosecution manufactured a chain of events" to reach a conclusion in the case against Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, which they add "seems attributable to the actions of vested interests desperate to prevent the real truth emerging."

"The safety of the conviction is further fraught by accusations, yet to be denied, that the Crown’s star witness was bribed for testimony and that the court was not informed of this," the submission argues.

The petition will be heard on Tuesday.

"It is plain that the Crown Office, the UK and US governments and arguably the Scottish Government hope that the public, under a barrage of soundbites and tabloid headlines, will forget the actual facts of the Crown case at Zeist," the submission says.

"As the years pass, it is becoming clearer and clearer that Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction was based on the ability of three high court judges to believe the collective, overly imaginative, circumstantial evidence adduced by intelligence services, the police and the Crown Office."

The petitioners have proposed that the Justice Committee call Kenny MacAskill, the Lord Advocate, the Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the Chief Executive of the SCCRC to an evidence session at the Parliament where the issues can be addressed.

"How long can our government ignore the ever increasing evidence that the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi in 2001 trial verdict was deeply flawed? And, how much longer must the electorate have to sit and watch as its executive panders to a Crown Office by granting it its every wish, whist the Lord Advocate laudably trumpets that “There is no sell-by date on justice”, restricting himself to cold cases only and studiously ignoring miscarriages of justice where the Crown might have to address its own judgements," the submission asks.

"As yet, this case has not been fully tested in a court of law in the interests of justice. Given, therefore, the intransigence on the part of the Crown and others in authority, it demands an inquiry to resolve this parlous state of affairs. JFM, therefore, asks the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament to do all in its power to encourage the government to order such and inquiry and salvage the reputation of our criminal justice system at home and abroad."