TEHRAN: Iran yesterday denied any involvement in the Lockerbie bombing in the face of new allegations it contracted Palestinian militants to carry out the 1988 attack which killed 270 people.
Documents obtained by Al Jazeera television for a documentary to be broadcast later provided new backing to long-standing allegations that Iran and not now slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was behind the downing of the Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town. “We reject any claims of Iranian involvement in this act of terror,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told reporters.
Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi — the only person ever convicted over the bombing — maintained his innocence right up until his death in May 2012.
Campaigners led by Jim Swire, whose daughter was killed in the bombing, have long claimed that Tehran contracted the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command to carry out the bombing in revenge for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes, which killed 290 people in July 1988.
In the documentary called ‘Lockerbie: What Really Happened?’ Al Jazeera cites testimony from alleged former senior Iranian intelligence official, Abolghasem Mesbahi, who defected to Germany in the late 90s. Mesbahi claims Iran contracted the bombing to PFLP-GC leader Ahmed Jibril, and provides names of those he says were involved in the operation.
“Money was given to Jibril upfront in Damascus for initial expense. The mission was to blow up a Pam-Am flight,” Mesbahi told Al Jazeera.
AFP
