Pointing out an error on the FCO 's website and accusing the British government of " delaying tactics " in relation to Megrahi 's second Lockerbie appeal , UN Observer at the Lockerbie trial Dr Hans Köchler wrote to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on 21 July 2008 saying : As international observer , appointed by the United Nations , at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands I am also concerned about the Public Interest Immunity ( PII ) certificate which has been issued by you in connection with the new Appeal of the convicted Libyan national . Withholding of evidence from the Defence was one of the reasons why the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred Mr. Al-Megrahi ’s case back to the High Court of Justiciary . The Appeal can not go ahead if the Government of the United Kingdom , through the PII certificate issued by you , denies the Defence the right ( also guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights ) to have access to a document which is in the possession of the Prosecution . How can there be equality of arms in such a situation ? How can the independence of the judiciary be upheld if the executive power interferes into the appeal process in such a way ? The FCO corrected the error on its website and wrote to Köchler on 27 August 2008 : " Ultimately , it will be for the Court to decide whether the material should be disclosed , not the Foreign Secretary . " In September 2008 , following an application made at a closed hearing of the Appeal Court in Edinburgh , it was reported that a security-vetted Defence Counsel is to be appointed to examine the disputed document . The court 's decision on the application has not been published but in a letter seen by BBC Scotland , FCO minister Kim Howells says it has decided to appoint a special defender . In a BBC interview , Hans Köchler criticised the development as " intolerable " and " detrimental to the rule of law . " Köchler said : " In no country can the situation be allowed where the accused or the appellant is not free to have his own defence team , and instead someone is imposed upon him . " On 15 October 2008 , five Scottish judges decided unanimously to reject a submission by the Crown Office that the scope of Megrahi 's second appeal should be limited to the specific grounds of appeal that were identified by the SCCRC in June 2007 . On 21 October 2008 Megrahi 's lawyer , revealed that his client had been diagnosed with " advanced stage " prostate cancer . Despite the appeals of Jim Swire , that keeping Megrahi behind bars while he battled the disease " would amount to exquisite torture " , the High Court ruled on 14 November 2008 that Megrahi should remain in jail while his appeal continued . In an article published on 29 December 2008 award-winning journalist and author , Hugh Miles , described the Lockerbie trial as an historic miscarriage of justice . The article concluded : " If Megrahi did n't do it , who did ? " On 31 December 2008 , Dr L. De Braeckeleer ended a 174-part series entitled Diary of a Vengeance Foretold . The article alleges that Iran ordered the bombing of Pan Am 103 in revenge for the downing of Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655
Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial