Jim Swire

Jim Swire
Born	1936 (age 74–75) Windsor, Berkshire, England
Occupation	General practitioner
Known for	Views and research on the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland
Title	Dr
Spouse	Jane
Children	3

James Swire (born 1936) is an English doctor best known for his involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, in which his daughter Flora was killed.^[1]

Early life and career

Swire was born in Windsor, Berkshire, and educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge. From Cambridge he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, specialising in munitions and explosives. Having completed his short-service commission, he then decided to change direction and returned to university, this time to University of Birmingham, to study medicine.

He became a family doctor, and moved to Blackwell, a village in the district of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire where he practised medicine as a GP. He married his Cambridge sweet-heart, Jane, in 1961. They had two daughters, Flora and Cathy, and a son, William.

Lockerbie bombing

Main article: Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial

On 20 December 1988, Swire's 24-year-old daughter Flora, who wanted to fly to the United States to spend Christmas with her American boyfriend, had little difficulty in booking a seat on the next day's half empty transatlantic Pan Am Flight 103. Flora died when Pan Am Flight 103 crashed at the town of Lockerbie, Scotland. Eleven residents of Lockerbie were killed by plummeting wreckage which brought the total number of fatalities to 270.

UK Families Flight 103

The 270 Pan Am 103 victims came from 21 countries.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1989, the U.S. group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 was formed to represent the interests of the families of the 189 American victims.^{[citation needed]}

The same year, the British relatives founded their own campaigning group, UK Families Flight 103 (UKFF103), to press for a public inquiry into the crash, and to seek truth and justice for all of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103.^{[citation needed]}

In the British media, in radio and TV interviews, and in letters to newspapers, the spokesman for UKFF103 would, more often than not, be Swire, though the position of spokesman was never defined in the organisation.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 May 1990, Swire took a fake bomb on board a British Airways from London Heathrow to New York JFK^[2] and then on a flight from New York JFK to Boston to show that airline security had not improved; his fake bomb consisted of a radio cassette player and the confectionery marzipan, which was used as a substitute for Semtex. Some American family members asked Swire to keep the news of the stunt quiet for a while; it became public six weeks after Swire did it. Susan and Daniel Cohen, parents of Pan Am Flight 103 victim Theodora Cohen approved of the plan, while some other family members of American victims did not.^[3]

Susan Cohen said that in the beginning she admired Swire "a great deal." The Cohens said that both they and Swire felt suspicious about the development in the mainstream account that Libya was solely responsible for the bombing; unlike the Cohens, Swire believed that Libya had no responsibility at all. Daniel Cohen said that he and his wife did not approve of Swire travelling to Tripoli, Libya and placing a photograph of Flora next to the photograph of Hanna, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi's adopted daughter, who died in a 1986 U.S. bombing. The Cohens said that they thought that Swire "was being foolish and worse" since the Cohens believed that his actions were forming Libyan propaganda and that al-Gaddafi was using Swire to benefit himself. As Swire made more trips to Libya Susan Cohen said that he began to remind her of Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai since the character was, in Susan Cohen's words, "a brave and decent man whose obsession led him to unwittingly serve the enemy cause."^[4]

The Cohens said in their book that Swire had praised a book project, which became Trail of the Octopus. When the Cohens discovered that Lester Coleman was the author, they told Swire to have a suspicion about the project; they said that Swire said that he wanted to "keep an open mind" about the book project.^[5]

Initial inquiries

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of Britain's Department of Transport immediately started an investigation. The AAIB quickly found evidence at the scene of the crash indicating that it was not an accident but that the aircraft had been brought down by an explosion. From parts of the aircraft fuselage retrieved from the Lockerbie vicinity, the AAIB began a painstaking reconstruction of the jumbo jet in an aircraft hangar at Longtown, Cumbria.

On 29 September 1989 U.S. President George H. W. Bush set up the President's Commission into Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST) to look into the security measures needed in the light of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. The PCAST report was presented to the President on 5 May 1990 and its recommendations were widely reported.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the Lockerbie bombing was conducted in Scotland by Sheriff Principal John Mowatt QC in October 1990. Disappointingly for Dr Swire and for UKFF103, the FAI was – like an inquest – concerned with simply establishing the facts of the Lockerbie bombing, rather than discovering why it happened and who did it.

UKFF103 renewed its demand for a public inquiry into all of the unresolved aspects of the bombing.

Bombing investigation

Ultimate responsibility for the criminal investigation rested with the Scottish Lord Advocate, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, who combined the political role of Conservative cabinet minister with his judicial role as Scotland's chief prosecutor. Three years after the crash, the investigation into the bombing of PA 103 was abruptly and unexpectedly concluded, with Lord Fraser and his U.S. counterpart announcing in November 1991 the indictment of two Libyans for the crime. Libya was instructed to surrender Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah for trial in either Britain or the United States.

Dr Swire was not entirely convinced by this indictment, but considered the Lockerbie relatives' search for truth and justice could be advanced if there were to be a trial, and especially if the trial were to be held in Scotland.

Facilitating the trial

There was no extradition treaty between any of the countries involved: Britain, the U.S. and Libya, and Libyan law prevented the extradition of its citizens in any case. Under the 1971 Montreal Convention which deals with prosecutions relating to aircrashes, Libya offered to detain the two accused and prosecute them. The offer was turned down by the U.S. and Britain and there was an impasse for the next three years in bringing the accused to trial.^{[citation needed]}

Early in 1994, Professor Robert Black of Edinburgh University proposed a solution whereby the two Libyans would be prosecuted under Scots law but in a neutral country. When, later in 1994, newly elected president Nelson Mandela offered South Africa as the neutral venue, the proposal was rejected out of hand by the then British prime minister, John Major.^{[citation needed]}

It took another three years until the election of a Labour government in Britain for any headway to be made. The new foreign secretary, Robin Cook, while initially taking the line that a neutral country was not possible under Scots law, met UKFF103 and with much support from president Nelson Mandela went along with the proposed solution. Swire was said to have been baffled as to how Cook and prime minister, Tony Blair, managed to persuade the Americans to agree.^{[citation needed]}

In the latter part of 1997, Dr Swire and Professor Black decided to lobby internationally for support of Black's proposal and visited Egypt and Libya. Dr Swire went to America, the United Nations, Germany, back to Libya and then visited key cities throughout the United Kingdom.^[6] Eventually the Dutch government offered a choice of sites, and Camp Zeist, Netherlands was chosen to become Scottish territory for the duration of criminal proceedings.

The accused were handed over to Scottish police at Camp Zeist in May 1999, and the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial finally began on 5 May 2000. Dr Swire was present for the whole trial and when the verdicts were announced on 31 January 2001, acquitting Fhimah and convicting Megrahi, Swire fainted and had to be carried from the courtroom.^{[citation needed]}

Meeting Megrahi

Dr Swire met Megrahi for the first time on Wednesday 16 November 2005 and spent an hour with him in the governor's office. The purpose of the meeting, according to Dr Swire, was to ask Megrahi whether he would still press for the SCCRC to continue its review of his case if rumours of Megrahi's likely repatriation to Libya to serve the remainder of his sentence proved to be correct.^{[citation needed]} Dr Swire said:

"Megrahi was happy for me to make it known that he is determined to pursue a review of the case, no matter what might evolve concerning his future detention. It is very important to the members of UKF103 campaign group that there be a full review of the entire Lockerbie scenario through an appropriately powered and independent inquiry, but absence of a further review of the court case would also damage our search for truth and justice."

Dr Swire added that even if Megrahi did not continue with his appeal bid, UKF103 would press the SCCRC to review the case, as interested parties.^[7]

Second appeal, abandonment and release

On 28 June 2007 the SCCRC announced the completion of its four-year review. It decided that Megrahi's conviction could have been a miscarriage of justice and granted him leave for a second appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Swire was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme a few hours before the SCCRC announced its decision.^[8] Megrahi's second appeal was expected to be heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal in 2009.

In October 2007 Swire offered £500,000 to lawyers trying to prove the innocence of al-Megrahi.^[9]

In December 2008 Peter Fraser, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, the former lord advocate, said that Swire's insistence that Al Megrahi was innocent was comparable to the "Stockholm syndrome," where captives grow to admire and defend their captors. Many American families of victims criticised Swire for his support of Libya.^[10] Swire said that he felt upset by Fraser's comments. Fraser defended his position, insisting on his choice of words.^[11]

In the same month, Dr Swire became a founder member of the Justice for Megrahi Campaign^[12] which sought interim release from jail for Megrahi, who had been diagnosed with metastasized prostatic cancer and was terminally ill, so that he could return to his family in Libya pending his second appeal against conviction.^[13]

On 20 August 2009, owing to the cancer, Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill. Application had also been made to transfer Megrahi to Libya through a prisoner transfer agreement between the UK government and Libya, though, to meet the criteria for this transfer, the conviction of a prisoner needed to be final and, ostensibly, to facilitate this, Megrahi abandoned his appeal. Dr Swire expressed his approval of the release but disappointment that the appeal had been abandoned. He stated: "It's a blow to those of us who seek the truth but it is not an ending. I think it is a splitting of the ways."^[14]

See also

	United Kingdom portal
	Biography portal

• Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
• Pan Am Flight 103 conspiracy theories
• Hans Köchler's Lockerbie trial observer mission
• The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie

References

1. ^ "Biographical details". http://www.lockerbietruth.com/JimSwirebio.html. Retrieved 9 January 2009. 
2. ^ Fineman, Mark (6 July 1990). "TERRORISM / ONE MAN'S CRUSADE : Fake Bomb Shows Hole in Security : The father of one of the victims of the Pan Am 103 tragedy demonstrates that it could happen again". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-06/news/mn-158_1_terrorist-bomb. 
3. ^ Cohen, Susan and Daniel. "Chapter 16." Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. New American Library. 2000. 225.
4. ^ Cohen, Susan and Daniel. "Chapter 16." Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. New American Library. 2000. 225–226.
5. ^ Cohen, Susan and Daniel. "Chapter 16." Pan Am 103: The Bombing, the Betrayals, and a Bereaved Family's Search for Justice. New American Library. 2000. 227.
6. ^ "Dr Jim Swire's visit to Egypt and Libya in April 1998". Archived from the original on 19 April 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/20030419100928/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/egyptsw.html. Retrieved 9 January 2009. 
7. ^ Lockerbie dad meets man jailed for bombing
8. ^ Dr Jim Swire interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, 28 June 2007
9. ^ "Swire offered cash help to al-Megrahi." The Scotsman. 7 October 2007. Retrieved on 8 August 2009.
10. ^ Macaskill, Mark. "Swire is victim of Stockholm Syndrome, says Lord Fraser." The Times. 21 December 2008. Retrieved on 9 August 2009.
11. ^ Davidson, Lorraine. "Lord Fraser unrepentant over attack on Jim Swire." The Times. 21 December 2008. Retrieved on 9 August 2009.
12. ^ http://www.justiceformegrahi.com/
13. ^ "Justice for Megrahi". http://www.justiceformegrahi.com/. Retrieved 9 January 2009. 
14. ^ Lockerbie: Al Megrahi release welcomed by victims' relatives

External links

• Website of Dr Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph
• Dr Jim Swire: My hopes
• Aims & Objectives of Justice for Megrahi campaign
• Taking a Stand. BBC Radio 4. Broadcast 2 February 2010.

Persondata
Name	Swire, Jim
Alternative names
Short description	General Practitioner
Date of birth	1936 (age 74–75)
Place of birth	Windsor, Berkshire, England
Date of death
Place of death