he was not entirely happy with the evidence presented against Megrahi during his trial in 2000, and in his subsequent appeal in 2002. However, he made it clear that this did not mean that he believed Megrahi to be innocent. According to The Sunday Times of 23 October 2005, Lord Fraser allegedly cast doubt upon the reliability of the main prosecution witness, Tony Gauci. Defence Representing Megrahi were solicitor, Alistair Duff, and advocates William Taylor QC, David Burns QC and John Beckett. Fhimah was represented by solicitors Gavin Walker Eddie McKechnie and Paul Phillips, advocates Richard Keen QC, Jack Davidson QC and Murdo Macleod. Both defendants also had access to Libyan defence lawyer Kamel Maghur. Pre-trial hearings Five pre-trial hearings took place: the accused waived their right to attend two procedural hearings at the High Court in Edinburgh; they attended two hearings at Camp Zeist which were held in private; and, on 7 December 1999 they made their first public appearance before the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At this public hearing the presiding judge, Lord Sutherland, ruled that: the two Libyans should face charges of conspiracy as well as murder; they could be described as members of their country's intelligence services; and, the start of the full trial was delayed by three months (from 2 February 2000). Case The case against the two defendants rested primarily on three points: that the bomb timer used was from a batch sold by a Swiss firm, Mebo AG to Libya; a former colleague in the Libyan Airlines office in Malta, Abdulmajid Gialka, who was due to testify that he had seen the construction of the bomb, or at least its loading onto the plane at Frankfurt; that the clothes identified as having been in the bomb suitcase had been bought by the defendant Megrahi at a shop in Malta. Each of these points was contested by the defence. Edwin Bollier, the co-founder of the Swiss manufacturer of the timer, testified that he had sold similar timers to East Germany, and admitted having connections to a number of intelligence agencies, including both the Libyans and the CIA. Gialka, by the time of the trial was living under the Witness Protection Program in the US, had connections with the CIA prior to 1988, and stood to collect up to $4m in reward money following a conviction. Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper, failed to positively