Lockerbie evidence 'unfair'

The courtroom at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands

More questions have been raised at the Lockerbie appeal about the credibility of a witness whose evidence helped to convict a Libyan man of the bombing.

Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was said by his lawyer to have been prejudiced because the witness had seen his photograph in a magazine several weeks before picking him in an identification parade.

Al-Megrahi is trying to overturn his conviction for murdering 270 people in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed on the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

He was jailed for life in January 2001, with the minimum sentence of 20 years, by three judges sitting in a specially-built Scottish court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

Click here for details of continuous live coverage of the appeal from BBC News Online.

'Direct influence'

Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci picked out Al-Megrahi in a line-up of suspects in April 1999, more than 10 years after he said the former Libyan intelligence agent bought clothing in his store.

Investigators said those clothes were used to pack the suitcase in which the bomb was concealed.

Defence lawyer Bill Taylor QC said Mr Gauci had seen a magazine article in late 1998 or early 1999 about the Lockerbie case which displayed Al-Megrahi's photograph and said he was a suspect.

"There was a very direct way in which the witness may have been influenced in his identification," Mr Taylor argued.

The appeal hearing is expected to last up to six weeks.

'Secret' holidays

Meanwhile, a Scottish MP has called for the government to respond to a newspaper report that police organised holidays in Scotland for Mr Gauci.

The Mail on Sunday reported that it had obtained secret tapes in which Mr Gauci claimed he had been flown from his home in Malta to Scotland for fishing, hiking and bird-watching trips.

The paper said Gauci was also taken to Lockerbie to be shown the damage caused by the plane crash.

Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for Linlithgow, plans to submit a House of Commons question to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the trips in the House of Commons.

"If Gauci was brought to Scotland before the trial, why were the defence and the judges not told?," he asked.