The former Maltese Minister Michael Refalo has revealed that crucial testimony which -if verified- exonerates Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was not taken by authorities investigating the Pan Am 103 event until 2007.

Refalo, also a former high commissioner in London, has provided testimony which directly contradicts evidence given by Crown witness Tony Gauci, which placed Al Megrahi in Malta purchasing clothes later claimed to have been found among bomb debris.

Gauci claims the Christmas lights were switched on in Sliema at the relevant time.

“Without going into the merits of whether Megrahi was guilty or not, there are a few inaccuracies in Tony Gauci’s testimony about the Christmas lights. Gauci said that on December 7 the Christmas street lights were not on. That’s incorrect. As minister for tourism at the time, I switched them on the day before at 5.30pm,” Refalo says.

His testimony was not taken by anyone until the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission interviewed him in 2007. Later that year they concluded that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

“The first time I got to know my evidence was required was during my term as Malta’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom when I was contacted by the SCCRC,” said Refalo.

“I was interviewed by lawyers acting for the SCCRC and released a sworn affidavit about the date and time I had turned on the lights.”

Earlier this year Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, Lord Advocate who raised the indictment against Megrahi, conceded that Gauci had been bribed for his testimony.

Professor Robert Black QC said the revelation was “yet another nail in the coffin of the Megrahi conviction.”

“The flaws that have been exposed in the investigation and the prosecution are so glaring that it is a gross insult to the people of Scotland for the Scottish Government to continue to deny that an independent inquiry is necessary into the operation of the Scottish criminal justice system in the Megrahi case,” he said.

UN explosives consultant John Wyatt has already challenged the scientific basis for the Crown's semtex bomb theory introduced in the Zeist trial. 

MEBO employee Ulrich Lumpert swore an affidavit -also in 2007- that he had manufactured the key forensic evidence and handed it to authorities investigating the Pan Am 103 event.

Image credit: Bob Gabbard