Lockerbie on Channel 7 – The FBI case against the two suspects is strong but circumstantial – they need eyewitness testimony. In an unprecedented move, the CIA hand over a Libyan double agent who was working at Malta airport at the time of the bombing – his code name is ‘Puzzle Piece’.
In an interview on a US warship in international waters, Puzzle Piece tells Phil Reid he saw the two suspects with a brown hard-sided suitcase, matching a description of the bomb suitcase, in the airport the day before the bombing.
With this key evidence in their pocket, US and UK authorities indict the two Libyans. Colonel Gaddafi refuses to give them up for trial abroad. Dr Jim Swire, desperate to see justice done for his daughter, travels to Libya to negotiate personally with Gaddafi for their release from Libya. Nine years later, the two men are given up for trial on the neutral territory of the Netherlands.
All is set for an open and shut case, but Puzzle Piece crumbles on the stand, shown to be a liar and a fantasist, and Bollier, the Swiss timer maker, says the key piece of forensic evidence, a fragment of his timer, is a fake…
then on episode 2 at 9.30pm
Doubt has been cast over the prosecution’s case and the court awaits the verdict tensely. When it comes, Fhima is acquitted, Megrahi found guilty. Jim Swire, convinced that both men would be set free, collapses in the courtroom from shock.
He is certain Libya was framed with fake evidence in order to protect the West’s fragile relationship with Iran. Al-Megrahi is released from a Scottish jail with cancer on compassionate grounds after spending just 9 years behind bars, in exchange for an oil deal with the Libyans. This disgusts many of the victims’ relatives, who believe he is guilty of mass murder. Evidence that emerges after the trial suggests that the timer fragment linking Libya to the attack really is a fake.
The courts do not agree. Relatives are left feeling angry and confused as it seems unlikely the full picture will ever emerge. In a rare moment of joy, a friendship blossoms between a Lockerbie farming couple, and the family of the American man they discovered dead on their hillside after the bombing.
The series ends in 2022 as American authorities apprehend a mystery Libyan man who has ‘confessed’ to building the bomb that took down Pan Am 103.
About the Show
LOCKERBIE is a gripping and emotional series that documents Britain’s worst ever terror attack and the deadliest attack on the US before 9/11 – the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988.
From the initial mayhem and confusion in the small farming town, the film’s focus turns to the victims’ relatives as they hear the devasting news. It’s soon established the plane was downed by a bomb and we follow the sprawling transatlantic investigation through two FBI agents at the heart of the story.
They discount the prime suspects, a fringe terror cell linked to Iran, and alight on two Libyan men active in Malta, who they believe put the suitcase containing the bomb into the airline baggage system there. Dr Jim Swire, 87, whose daughter Flora was killed on the flight, has long believed Gaddafi’s Libya to be innocent, a victim of international power politics.
Following the trial, at which one of the Libyans was convicted of mass murder, Jim campaigns for what he believes to be the truth, often at odds with the American relatives we hear from throughout the series. Subsequent investigations cast doubt on the Libyan conviction. In December 2022, one more mystery suspect appears in U.S. custody. Will he reveal all?
Lockerbie on Channel 7 and 7plus – Sunday 24 March, 2024 at 8:30pm
Media Release – Seven
Lockerbie on Channel 7
TV Central Seven content HERE
Lockerbie on Channel 7
