How did the Lockerbie bombing witness die?

The peacock biographical drama The series “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth” describes the trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, accused of bombing of Pan Am Flight 103in detail. As the investigative show reveals, Tony Gauci, a store owner in Malta, identified Megrahi as the person who bought the clothes that wrapped the bomb. The identification and supporting statements played a crucial role in the conviction of the Libyan national. For years after the infamous trial, Gauci remained in the spotlight as his credibility and the authenticity of his identification were intensely scrutinized. The controversies only intensified when details of an alleged reward surfaced before his death.

Tony Gauci’s identification of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was a turning point in the Lockerbie trial despite contradictions in his statements

Tony Gauci was the owner of Mary’s House, a clothing store located in Sliema, Malta. According to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s indictment, the Libyan national purchased a set of clothes at the store on Dec. 7, 1988, days before the downing of Pan Am Flight 103. Investigators questioned the shopkeeper and asked him to identify the buyer of the clothes. clothes several times. According to Jim Swire and the source text for Peter Biddulph’s show, “The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice”, Gauci struggled to recognize the person when police showed him several photographs. This hesitation, however, was not present when he was called as a witness at the trial.

After testifying on the stand in 2000, Gauci identified Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as the buyer he met on December 7. Several of his statements, however, contradicted this identification. According to the merchant, it was raining when the buyer left his store, which does not correspond to weather records which indicate that it did not rain that same day. Swire’s book also states that Gauci was convinced that the buyer had not purchased a shirt from his store, even though a fragment of the bomb’s timer was found in the collar of one. The witness’s credibility was further damaged when he could not be certain that there were Christmas lights on the day of the purchase.

Gauci’s statements were unconvincing, even to members of the Scottish legal community. Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, a former Lord Advocate, described him as “not quite the shilling” and “an apple short of a picnic” in October 2005. The influential figure’s words stunned those who believed in Megrahi’s alleged innocence, including Jim Swire, because they believed that a person without adequate credibility should not have been presented as a witness.

Tony Gauci’s credibility and testimony questioned after Lockerbie trial

Tony Gauci’s credibility came under scrutiny after the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) concluded its review of the case in 2007. The public body found the witness had come across the photo of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in a magazine which considered him to be the author of the attack. a few days before it was supposed to identify the buyer. This information was also not communicated to defense attorneys during the trial. In October 2007, Megrahi’s representatives revealed that Gauci allegedly accepted $2 million from the U.S. Department of Justice for testifying under the “Rewards for Justice” program.

In 2013, the Sunday Times of Malta published a report on this allegation based on “dozens of documents annexed” to the 2007 SCCRC report. According to the documents, Detective Superintendent Tom McCulloch of the Scottish Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary attempted to obtain $2 million for Gauci and $1 million for Gauci’s brother, Paul, for their cooperation with the prosecution. “There is no doubt that (Tony Gauci’s) testimony was key to the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed Al Megrahi. So I think he deserves to be nominated for this award,” reads a letter written by McCulloch to US authorities, according to The Sunday Times of Malta.

Tony Gauci died in 2016

Tony Gauci died on October 29, 2016, at the age of 75, of natural causes. Since the conclusion of the trial and subsequent developments that have cast doubt on his credibility, life has not been easy for the witness. “We are under a lot of pressure here. The press (wants) to photograph us; everyone wants to interview my brother; we have no privacy. When we go out, there are people with cameras. Our lives are intolerable here,” said his brother, Paul Gauci. Malta today. In the late 2010s, there were unconfirmed rumors that he had moved to Australia.

After Gauci’s death, George Thomson, who was part of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s legal team, said his client, while on his deathbed, was eager to confront the witness in “a another place.” The lawyer added that the convicted Libyan national wanted the trader to “answer for the lies he told against him”. “Personally, I hope Tony is in a better place and is now at peace because he had to live a tortured life knowing he imprisoned an innocent man for money,” Thomson added , according to the Times of Malta.

Even after his death, Gauci was still present in the Lockerbie bombing proceedings. When Megrahi’s defense team returned to a Scottish appeal court to prove his apparent innocence posthumously in 2020, lawyers argued that the witness’s testimony should not be relied upon, calling the identification of their client by the latter as “highly prejudicial”. Yet Megrahi’s team lost the third appeal in 2021. To this day, Gauci remains one of the most controversial figures in the Lockerbie bombing case. Even his death couldn’t save him from the scrutiny, which was reignited thanks to “Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.”

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