Original subtitles

JANE: I think we should move.

I'm not leaving this house!

I want to be around life, not death.

Not death, every single minute of the day.

- Guilty. - JIM: He can't be...

The case against you is a travesty of justice.

The entire prosecution case rested on this.

The tracks on the fragment are of copper,

covered by a layer of pure tin.

What is this? No, this is not the same fragment.

JIM: And I will do everything in my power to help you.

I've just heard Megrahi is being granted a second appeal.

But there's nothing in here that helps us discover what did happen.

CRAWFORD: Was Megrahi framed?

Whatever it is, they want to keep it buried.

I'm so sorry, but it's prostate cancer.

MEGRAHI: I don't want to die here, Jim.

JIM: I don't want that either.

RODERICK: There's a good possibility that you're released

on compassionate grounds and you can keep your appeal.

MEGRAHI: I will never give up my appeal.

My name will be cleared,

and you will go on and find out who really did this.

LIBYAN OFFICIAL: (SPEAKING ARABIC) It's been made very clear to us

you won't leave this prison unless you drop your appeal.

Your appeal,

or your freedom.

(SCREAMING)

(GATE CREAKS OPEN)

Oh.

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

You're going to miss us.

Mmm... (CHUCKLES)

Yes, of course.

It's for you.

(ENGINE STARTS)

(MOTORCYCLE ENGINES REVVING)

NEWSCASTER: Britain's biggest mass murderer is now a free man,

shown mercy by Scotland's Justice Secretary.

Mister al-Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power.

REPORTER 1: Justice Secretary knew his decision would be welcomed and reviled.

REPORTER 2: The FBI director sent a letter to Scotland's justice officials

blasting their decision to release Abdelbaset...

REPORTER 3: The decision gives comfort to terrorists around the world...

This man was convicted of murdering 270 people.

He showed no compassion to them.

Served only eight years, and that works out at about two weeks

for every one of the lives he took.

REPORTER 3: Liberty comes at a price.

Expected to die within months,

he will do so a guilty man.

REPORTER 4: Downing Street released a letter written by Prime Minister Gordon Brown,

asking the Libyan leader to handle Megrahi's arrival with sensitivity.

REPORTER 5: ...requested that the Libyan authorities keep Megrahi's return low-key.

It was anything but.

Alongside Megrahi was Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam.

(PAUSE BUTTON CLICKS)

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

Hello, Jim Swire.

Jim, Lance Ferguson from the Mirror.

You've got the TV on, right?

- Yes. - How are you feeling right now?

You campaigned for Megrahi to go home,

and this is how he thanks you.

Have you been played, Jim?

Has Megrahi killed your search for justice stone dead?

(PHONE BEEPS OFF)

(SIGHS)

(ELEVATOR DINGS)

Jim How long have you been waiting?

A couple of hours.

I couldn't reach you on your phone.

We've been in meetings all day, and...

Roddy's tied up in another case.

- (DOOR CLOSES) - (TELEPHONE RINGING)

Come through.

JIM: I don't know why he abandoned his appeal.

We fought so hard for him.

Why did he do it?

The Libyans requested Megrahi's release

under a prisoner transfer agreement between Libya and the UK,

but, of course, he was convicted in a Scottish court,

and under Scottish law, a prisoner transfer cannot be granted

if there's an ongoing appeal, which obviously there was.

That still left compassionate release,

which Megrahi met the criteria for.

Terminally ill, no more than three months to live.

SHONA: And, crucially, he didn't need to drop his appeal.

The case would have still gone to the appeal court, even if he was in Libya.

Even if he were to die in Libya.

Well, that's what he promised me would happen.

His appeal would go on no matter where he was.

ASHTON: Then, at the eleventh hour,

he seems to have changed his mind.

When he told us, Roddy was devastated.

And it all happened so quickly.

He was smuggled out of the country before anyone could notice.

Did he leave anything for me?

A message, letter?

ASHTON: Nothing.

I only have, um, his address and telephone number in Tripoli.

(CLEARS THROAT) May I have it?

I mean, surely, his hand must have been forced.

We may never find out.

And maybe that's for the best.

(PAPER TEARING)

JIM: Thank you, John.

(CLEARS THROAT)

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

(LINE RINGING)

REPORTER: Reportedly living in the family villa

in an upmarket area of Tripoli...

...Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber,

is still alive after nine months.

ROBERT MENENDEZ: Very much alive,

and very much free,

- living in the lap of luxury, by all accounts. - (LINE RINGING)

REPORTER 2: He only had three months to live,

may actually live another ten years.

REPORTER 2: The medical evidence seems to be,

when you look at it closely, highly suspect.

LEILA RICHARDS: Nearly one year on, Mr. al-Megrahi is still alive.

- (LINE RINGING) - Correct.

RICHARDS: Have you been in contact with him?

JIM: I've tried, but I've been unable to reach him.

RICHARDS: Dr. Swire...

has al-Megrahi got away with it?

A cancer prognosis, as any doctor knows,

- is an inexact science. - Yes.

And the inference that he is somehow "getting away with it,"

frankly, I find that offensive.

Why else would he drop his appeal?

I, and many other members of the UK Families group,

believe that the authorities pushed Mr. al-Megrahi to drop his appeal

so that they would never be held to account

for the false conviction of an innocent man.

And that is why I consider Mr. al-Megrahi

to be the 271st victim of Lockerbie.

RICHARDS: You realize how many people will find that offensive?

The purpose is not to offend people.

The purpose is to find the truth.

(SIGHS)

JIM: Thank you.

Where are you going?

Out.

- Where? - God knows. I just need some air.

I wish sometimes you'd think about us before you open your mouth to them.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(DOORBELL RINGS)

- (DOORBELL RINGS) - JIM: All right.

All right, all right.

Murray.

Long time no see, Jim.

I thought you'd given up on us.

Well, this story's got a funny way of pulling me back in.

Come in.

Jane is over at Cathy's. She, um...

(DOOR CLOSES)

She spends quite a bit of time there with the grandkids.

Right.

Order tends to break down.

Ah, no milk.

Sorry.

- (FRIDGE DOOR CLOSES) - MURRAY: Mmm.

(MURRAY CLEARS THROAT)

You look exhausted.

Have you been following the WikiLeaks story?

Uh... No, not really.

It's a media organization that's been leaking secret

and classified information online.

It's linked to all sorts of stuff.

Assassinations in Somalia, government corruption in Kenya,

Guantanamo Bay, and thousands upon thousands of US embassy cables.

- Well, we've read a few of those. - (CHUCKLES)

Everything that the powers that be don't want us to see.

And I found something.

Buried amongst it all.

About Megrahi.

The Libyans made a direct threat to the UK.

What do you mean, "threat"?

They wanted Megrahi out. Home. ASAP.

If he died in prison here,

then all trade, political ties, would be ceased immediately.

Trade with Libya means only one thing.

Oil.

You remember when Tony Blair met Gaddafi in 2004?

The "Deal in the Desert"? Aye?

Well, they met again in 2007,

and BP signed a £90,000,000 deal.

And in that second meeting, Blair and Gaddafi

signed a prisoner transfer agreement.

And I reckon that was only ever about one man.

Megrahi.

Yeah. The British wanted into those oil fields desperately,

and Gaddafi suddenly is threatening to rip it all up.

They had no choice but to sign.

So do you think the Labor government put pressure

on the Scottish government to release him?

Well, they claim they didn't, but it's on record.

Kenny MacAskill took phone calls

from Jack Straw, Lord Chancellor and Justice Minister at the time.

And after that, MacAskill met with Megrahi

and his Libyan lawyers in private.

It caused an outrage at the time.

Now, we don't know what was said in those meetings,

but what we do know is we've got two sides,

both wanting what the other had.

With Megrahi at the center of it,

all reduced to a political pawn.

Aye.

Makes you wonder what was behind him dropping his appeal.

REPORTER 1: The former Labor government has been accused

of organized hypocrisy.

DAVID CAMERON: The Americans, they wanted Megrahi to die in prison,

but saying privately to the Libyans that they wanted him released.

REPORTER 2: I'd like to know if there was some kind of illicit deal here.

There was a story in many of the newspapers

that this was done particularly by the British government...

...in return for getting an oil contract.

That would be despicable.

REPORTER 3: We need to know what this oil deal was all about

and whether there was a compromise to the judicial system for commercial gain.

INTERVIEWER: Some of your citizens believe that it was the result of a deal,

and that deal had to do with oil.

There was no deal. I can give you an absolute, unconditional assurance...

NEWSCASTER: The so-called Arab Spring appears to be spreading to Libya today...

...as hundreds of anti-government protesters...

...have clashed with police in Libya's second city, Benghazi.

Gaddafi, go away. We don't want you. Neither you or your family.

REPORTER 4: Colonel Gaddafi is crazy.

They're worried he will kill and kill and kill just to save his regime.

REPORTER 5: This is not an Egyptian-style protest movement.

This is a war for Libya.

HILLARY CLINTON: And the people of Libya

have made themselves clear. It is time for Gaddafi to go.

REPORTER 6: The rebel-held east of Libya had been staring at defeat,

but now they're tasting victory.

REPORTER 7: A degree of chaos is settling in here.

There are simply too many gunmen and no central authority.

REPORTER 8: Gaddafi, from somewhere in hiding,

is vowing to fight to the death.

(SHOUTING IN ARABIC)

DAVID CAMERON: I think today is a day

to remember all of Colonel Gaddafi's victims.

To Yvonne Fletcher, and obviously those who died

in connection with the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie...

REPORTER 9: With the fall of Gaddafi, the darkest secrets...

...of his regime are beginning to surface.

This is confirmation, now...

...that Colonel Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Libya's ex-foreign minister reportedly telling a newspaper

that Gaddafi gave the order to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

- (LINE RINGING) - This brings into question

the decision to approve Megrahi's release.

(SPEAKING ARABIC) The facts will come out, one day.

(LINE CONTINUES RINGING)

My friend, Dr. Jim Swire, visited me in prison.

He knows I am innocent.

- (CALL CONNECTS) - Baset?

Baset, it's Jim Swire.

(MAN SPEAKING ARABIC)

No, please speak English. Please speak English.

(MAN CONTINUES SPEAKING ARABIC)

I need to know what's going on.

Baset, I need to know.

- Please tell me why-- - (VOICEMAIL BEEPS)

(PHONE BEEPS OFF)

JANE: Jim?

Jim?

(KEYPAD BEEPING)

(CELL PHONE RINGING)

- (BEEPS) - (RINGING STOPS)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

Jim?

Jim!

Oh, thank God. Thank God.

Jim. (BREATHING HEAVILY)

What are you doing here?

You're freezing.

I was so sure.

I thought Baset was innocent,

but I don't know anymore.

Don't know what to believe.

And if I don't know that, if I don't know...

what I believe, then...

What will I do?

That's 20 years of my life wasted.

With no one to blame but myself.

You have to go. To Libya.

I don't even know if he's alive or dead.

I don't want you to, but it's the only way you'll find out.

You have to find him and you have to ask him.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(AIRPLANE ENGINE WHOOSHING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JIM: Taxi?

(DRIVER SPEAKING ARABIC)

KAMAL: Where do you want to go?

Will you take me here?

It's too dangerous.

JIM: I have money.

How much do you need?

Yalla. Get in.

(DISTANT GUNSHOTS)

(MAN YELLING IN ARABIC)

(KAMAL EXCLAIMS IN ARABIC)

Who are they?

- KAMAL: Militia. - (MILITIA MAN SPEAKS ARABIC)

KAMAL: Many, many militia everywhere.

(TAPPING ON WINDOW)

(KAMAL AND MILITIA MAN SPEAKING ARABIC)

- (MILITIA MEN SPEAKING ARABIC) - (GATE CLATTERS)

JIM: Thank you.

KAMAL: Ah, add it to my tip.

(DISTANT GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS)

(DOG BARKING)

(CAR DOOR CLOSES)

(INTERCOM BUZZING)

(SPEAKING ARABIC)

Uh, I'm Jim Swire.

- Jim Swire. - I'm from England.

I've come to see Baset.

(GUARD SPEAKING ARABIC)

I'm here to see Baset.

- I'm here to see Baset. - (SHOUTING IN ARABIC)

(SPEAKING ARABIC)

GUARD: (IN ENGLISH) Bye-bye.

Baset!

- Baset! - (GUARD SPEAKING ARABIC)

- All right! - (SPEAKING ARABIC)

Baset! It's Jim!

(AISHA SPEAKING ARABIC)

It's Jim.

(SPEAKING ARABIC)

Thank you.

(DOOR OPENS)

Ghada. It's just me.

I promise you, I came alone.

I needed to see him, so I came.

Then you're crazy.

Yes, probably.

Is he here?

(SPEAKING ARABIC)

(SPEAKING ARABIC)

(IN ENGLISH) Come with us.

(DOOR OPENS)

(AISHA SPEAKING ARABIC)

(ALL GREETING IN ARABIC)

(IN ENGLISH) You shouldn't have come.

I had to.

Libya is a dangerous country. You could be killed.

I realize that.

Come.

Please.

(DOOR CLOSES)

I know why you have come.

It was not to inquire after my health.

I phoned. I wrote letters.

I did not reply.

I saw this as a friendship.

It is friendship.

It is.

I gave you my word.

I broke my word.

Forgive me.

I know that dropping my appeal means you're still not released from this.

Why did you?

I had no choice.

I was allowed only to return home to my family to die here.

Under one condition.

I still remain guilty.

I am only a tiny player in a far greater game.

They don't care about my innocence.

They never have.

I am no use to anyone as an innocent man.

Only to you.

But I am tired now.

And I am dying.

I cannot take them on. I cannot prove them wrong.

But you...

You can keep fighting.

(MUTTERS)

(BUZZING)

(MEGRAHI SPEAKING ARABIC)

(DOOR CLOSES)

MEGRAHI: (IN ENGLISH) We have worked on this together,

myself, Ghada, and John Ashton.

We had to keep it secret,

for fear of censorship.

John will publish the findings soon.

Please, Jim. Open, open.

PT/35b.

GHADA: The timer fragment.

The key piece of evidence against my father.

The head of the FBI investigation, Richard Marquis,

said that without it, there would not have been an indictment.

Without it, there is no case against my father.

But John Ashton met the technician who built the MEBO timer boards.

- From the timers that were supplied to Libya. - GHADA: Mmm.

He told him that the circuitry on MEBO boards was coated with an alloy

of 70% tin and 30% lead.

That is how he always constructed them.

But PT/35b was coated with pure tin, no lead whatsoever.

The fragment is not from a MEBO board.

It was not sold to Libya.

But Feraday in court, the forensics expert,

he swore that the timer fragment was similar in all respects...

...to the sample boards obtained from MEBO.

GHADA: Feraday's notes.

The page is dated August 1991,

four months before his forensic report.

He records that the metallic coating on the fragment is pure tin.

But here, on this page, he also states

that the metallic coating on the sample board itself was...

You see? You see what he's written?

In other notes, he even speculated why there could be discrepancies.

He knew they weren't an exact match.

MEGRAHI: The question is, who else knew?

The Scottish police, the Crown office, the prosecution, DOJ, CIA?

PT/35b...

was planted.

GHADA: The timer fragment has no connection to Libya,

and no connection to my father.

It was used only to frame him.

The whole case against me dissolves into thin air.

(ALL SPEAKING ARABIC)

- Dr. Jim Swire. - (GREETS IN ARABIC)

MEGRAHI: Jim...

How did I survive so long?

How did I confound medical expertise?

Here... is the answer.

We have lived so long with the dead,

and we must never forget them.

But how much sweeter...

to be with the living.

(JIM SIGHS)

When I die, Jim,

I am going to a place where I hope to see Flora.

I will tell her...

that her father is my friend.

Go back, Jim. Go home to your family.

GHADA: Dr. Swire?

Our father is not the Lockerbie bomber.

He's a good man.

He's lucky to have you as a friend.

JIM: Thank you.

(DOOR OPENS)

(INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENTS OVER PA)

Back in one piece.

Have you got another trip in you?

Skye, me, the kids, the grandkids.

Will you come?

Am I wanted?

I'll leave you to it.

MURRAY: So where do you think the fragment came from?

We think... Baset, Ghada, John Ashton, myself...

we think it was planted,

somewhere along the line.

Planted where?

JIM: Well, it could have been planted by the US intelligence services,

or the UK's, or both of them conspiring together.

It's happened before.

Is that what happened here?

Have they fooled the world for 30 years?

If you think about everything that's happened,

is it really so wild a claim?

Let Iran off the hook,

blame the rogue state, Libya.

Maybe there's some truth in that.

Younger Murray believed it.

"Just asking the question."

I've still got questions.

(CHUCKLES)

I'll never run out of them.

Why did Gaddafi want to get one man back to Libya so badly?

Why was it so important to him?

- Popularity? - Yeah.

Partly, because Megrahi is a hero, a martyr.

We saw that when he got off that plane.

I think he was involved, Jim.

I really do.

I think Iran wanted revenge for its Airbus being shot down.

They farmed it out to the PFLP-GC,

but then they got busted by the German police.

So someone else stepped forward.

Libya.

I think when they handed Megrahi and Fhimah over to be tried,

they didn't think they'd be convicted.

There wasn't enough evidence.

But he was found guilty.

Gaddafi owed it to Megrahi to get him home.

He owed it to all his security service personnel for keeping him in power.

But just because it was a sham trial,

it doesn't make Megrahi innocent.

It was Libya.

It was also Iran.

And Syria. And the Palestinians.

You believe all of them?

I don't think we ever truly realize

how much the West is hated.

And no wonder. Look how we act, what we do.

Look how we justify it.

I mean, always someone else.

Never us.

You might never find the answer you're looking for.

You know that?

Well, there, Murray,

I have to disagree with you.

That's new evidence.

No one can dispute it.

No one. Changes everything.

So the fight goes on.

Well, of course the fight goes on.

They're gonna write that on your gravestone, you know that?

Well, I'm not planning one of those just yet.

It's been a hell of a ride, Dr. Swire.

It's far from over, Murray.

It's far from over.

Can I pay for that?

What's that?

The Lockerbie disaster.

What was that?

HELEN WILLETS ON RADIO: A little bit of haar on the east coast of Scotland

limiting the temperature, but we could see 17 or 18

in the likes of Glasgow and Belfast. (CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)

But again, essentially, a dry picture.

And as I mentioned, warming up as the week goes on.

And that's how it's looking at the moment.

- Susan, back to you. - SUSAN: Thank you, Helen. That was Helen Willets.

(ON RADIO) BBC News at 6:00. This is Peter Donaldson.

(CLOCK CHIMES ON RADIO)

Good evening.

The only person to be convicted of the Lockerbie bombing

has died of cancer at his home in Libya.

David Cameron said the death of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

was a moment to remember the victims of what he called

an "appalling terrorist act."

The Scottish government has said investigations into the bombings will continue.

An earthquake has struck northern Italy... (CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY)

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)

- WILL: Go! Come on! Run, run, run, run! - (JANE LAUGHS)

(JIM SIGHS)

CATHY: Isabel! Archie, come on!

He's dead.

I don't know what to say.

At some kind of peace now, hopefully.

But not you.

Well, he's gone, but...

it's not the end, no.

There was a time I envied you.

Your persistence, your anger,

How it drove you on.

Well, if I'd done nothing,

if I'd just sat down and cried, I'd never have stopped.

All these years. On and on and on.

It's always for her.

It's always been for her.

That night, the night it happened...

do you remember the awful waiting?

Not knowing if she was alive or dead?

Sometimes I think we're no closer to the truth now than we were then.

Maybe the only truth is we'll never really know what happened.

And that breaks my heart.

But once I started to accept that I may never get an answer,

I may never know,

it meant that I could go on.

And I will...

For them.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

- (CATHY CHEERING) - WILL: Come on, come on.

JANE: You can't give up.

I know that.

I know.

(JIM CLEARS THROAT)

(JANE CHUCKLES)

WILL: Lucas, I wanna catch this!

(CATHY CHEERING)

WILL: Oh, now things are going to change up. Granddad's playing.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER CONTINUES)

- WILL: Look out over here. - Probably better get way out.

- (BALL THUDS) - WILL: Oh! Yeah!

We got out! We got him out!

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)

JIM: It's too full.

FLORA: (WHISPERING) It's fine.

Ta-da!

WILL: Dad, Mum, come here.

JANE: Why? What is it?

WILL: A newsflash.

A plane's gone down.

JANE: It won't be her flight. It can't be.

CATHY: What's going on?

JANE: Cathy, did Flora make her flight?

CATHY: Yeah, I think so. JANE: Oh!

JIM: So all your damn computers,

and you can't say whether my child is on that plane!

WOMAN: We have confirmation for you.

The passenger list has been checked and verified.

Flora MacDonald Margaret Swire

was a passenger on Pan Am Flight 103.

I'm afraid there are no survivors.

(JANE AND CATHY SOBBING)

CATHY: (SOBBING) No...

No, no.

MEGRAHI: We have lived so long with the dead,

but how much sweeter to be with the living.

MURRAY: It's been a hell of a ride, Dr. Swire.

LORD SUTHERLAND: Guilty.

(INAUDIBLE)

(INAUDIBLE)

Be with us.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

JIM: Go and have the time of your life.

FLORA: Love you, Dad.

(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)