Tony Gauci

File:Mary's_House_Sliema_Malta,_and_current_owner.jpeg

At the trial, Gauci appeared uncertain about the exact date he sold the clothes in question and was not entirely sure that it was Megrahi to whom they were sold. Nonetheless, Megrahi's initial appeal against conviction was rejected by the Scottish Court in the Netherlands in March 2002. In 2007, a Scottish judicial review panel raised concerns about the trial and Gauci's testimony, including that in the days prior to picking Megrahi in a lineup, he had seen a picture of him in a magazine article on his suspected role in the bombing.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29lockerbie.html|title=Scottish Panel Challenges Lockerbie Conviction|last=Cowell|first=Alan|date=2007-06-29|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

Five years after the trial, former Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, publicly described Gauci as being "an apple short of a picnic" and "not quite the full shilling".[https://web.archive.org/web/20070310205548/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article584098.ece Pressure grows for explanation in Lockerbie witness dispute], timesonline.co.uk; accessed 29 October 2016.

Since Fraser had been responsible for the investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, and for indicting Megrahi in November 1991, he was called upon to clarify his remarks about Gauci by Colin Boyd, the Lord Advocate who was chief prosecutor at the Lockerbie trial.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

After conducting a four-year review of the case, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) reported on 28 June 2007 that there may have been a miscarriage of justice in Megrahi's case, and granted him a second appeal against conviction.[http://guardian.co.uk/Lockerbie/Story/0,,2114463,00.html Libyan jailed over Lockerbie wins right to appeal], guardian.co.uk; accessed 29 October 2016.

The SCCRC also revealed that Gauci had been interviewed 17 times by Scottish and Maltese police during which he gave a series of inconclusive statements. In addition, a legal source said that there was evidence that leading questions had been put to Gauci.[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2104982,00.html Evidence that casts doubt on who brought down Flight 103], guardian.co.uk; accessed 29 October 2016.

It was clear from the SCCRC's report that the lack of reliability of Gauci's testimony as a key prosecution witness was the main reason for the referral of Megrahi's case back to the Appeal Court. In a statement on 29 June 2007, Dr Hans Köchler, the UN-appointed international observer at the Lockerbie trial, said he shared the SCCRC's doubts about Gauci's credibility, expressed in the following extract:

:"there is no reasonable basis in the trial court's judgment for its conclusion that the purchase of the items (clothes that were found in the wreckage of the plane) from Mary's House (in Malta) took place on 7 December 1988."[http://i-p-o.org/koechler-lockerbie-referral-29June2007.htm Statement by Dr Hans Köchler on the SCCRC's referral], i-p-o.org; accessed 29 October 2016.

In October 2007, it was reported that Gauci received a $2 million reward for testifying against Megrahi at the Lockerbie trial.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Lockerbie/Story/0,,2182343,00.html|title=Fresh doubts on Lockerbie conviction|first=Severin|last=Carrell|work=The Guardian|location=UK|date=3 October 2007}}{{Cite journal|title=Revealed: CIA offered $2m to Lockerbie witness and brother|author=Lucy Adams|date=3 October 2007|journal=Herald Scotland|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/revealed-cia-offered-2m-to-lockerbie-witness-and-brother-1.866400|accessdate=29 October 2016}}

In 2008, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC Ref 23:19) found that US$2 million had been paid to Tony Gauci and US$1 million to Paul Gauci under the US Department of Justice "Rewards for Justice" programme.{{cite web|title=PP60 Grounds of Appeal|publisher=Taylor & Kelly Solicitors|url=http://megrahimystory.net/downloads/pp60%20-%20231%20Grounds%20of%20Appeal.pdf?|accessdate=29 October 2016}}{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/after-five-years-of-secrecy-today-we-publish-the-full-report-that-could-have-cleared-the-lockerbie-bomber.1710352|title=After five years of secrecy, today we publish the full report that could have cleared the Lockerbie 'bomber'|work=Herald Scotland|accessdate=25 March 2012}}

The newspaper Malta Today ran an article on Gauci in May 2009 quoting Gauci's brother Paul as complaining that their lives had become "intolerable" amid growing interest by the press and repeating "the popular claim that Gauci was planning a move to Australia with his brother".{{cite web|title=In the dock: Lockerbie witness Gauci |publisher=Malta Today|last=Vella|first=Matthew|date=3 May 2009|url=http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2009/05/03/t13.html|accessdate=20 August 2009}}

In August 2009, the BBC reported that Gauci was living in Australia.{{cite web|title=Megrahi: 'A convenient scapegoat?'|publisher=BBC|date=20 August 2009|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8211596.stm |accessdate=20 August 2009}}

• Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission

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Category:1944 births

Category:2016 deaths

Category:Place of death missing

Category:20th-century Maltese businesspeople

Category:Pan Am Flight 103

Category:Maltese emigrants to Australia