Dad hugged Lockerbie bomber convicted of murdering his daughter

Sep 26 2010 by Sophie Cross, Sunday Mercury

A FATHER whose daughter was killed in the Lockerbie bombing has visited the man convicted of her murder in hospital – and called him a friend.

Jim Swire, formerly from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said he hugged Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi after travelling to Libya to meet him.

The retired GP is convinced the 58 year-old is innocent and campaigned for his release from a Scottish prison and eventual return to Tripoli.

The Scottish government controversially freed Megrahi from his life sentence last August on compassionate grounds, after he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and given three months to live.

Dr Swire, 74, lost his daughter Flora, 23, in the Lockerbie atrocity on December 21, 1988.

Megrahi was later convicted of the bombing which killed 270 people – the single worst terrorist attack on British soil.

But Dr Swire said: “I believe he is the 271st victim of Lockerbie.

“He is a very sick man, but is in better shape than I had dared to hope. We met seeking a common goal – the re-examination of the available evidence which led to a verdict we believe was reached under political pressure, rather than the rules of justice.

“That task now falls upon Scotland and those who believe, like me, that the verdict was a miscarriage of justice.

“I am entirely satisfied this man was not guilty as charged and that there is much more credible evidence that points to Syria and Iran.”