Exclusive: CNN’s Nic Robertson Refutes Claim He ‘Staged’ Finding al-Megrahi

Mediaite: Some have alleged that you were somehow led to Megrahi’s house, that the discovery was somehow staged, and that you’d received an email.

Robertson: No, we didn’t receive an email, nor were we led to his home. Here’s the story. We had heard that the other convicted bomber had been interviewed by a Swedish journalist, and so we thought it to be a good idea to go look for Megrahi. We found a newspaper article that had a photo of his house, so I found a fixer and he was able to easily recognize the area in which the house was – an area in Tripoli called “Damascus.” So we went to the house that was in construction and asked around. My fixer was a very bright guy who simply asked around. He went to a local shop and they said yeah, he lives down the road in this particular house.

“No, we didn’t receive an email, nor were we led to his home.”

So we approached the building that was very secure. There was no one around it but there were security cameras and intercoms and such, and me and my crew sort of rang the buzzer and tried to talk our way in. A local shopkeeper told us that many other journalists had come by and sort of made a nuisance and left, so I decided that I would just wait them out. I wrote CNN on my note pad and held it up to the security camera and I could tell that they were now paying attention.

So I decided to have a look over the wall and it was just at that moment that his son came to the door. We talked for only a moment and then he let me in alone.

Mediaite: Talk about entering the Megrahi home. How long were you there?

Robertson: To be honest I am a little bit surprised that we are even having this discussion. How long was I in this house? I would say about ten minutes. I had a flip cam in one pocket and an iPhone in the other pocket and you know when we were standing at the door and his brother came to the door and waved at us, I thought I was going to go in with the cameraman, or at least the whole team was going to go in. And then it was clear it was just me going in, when I hadn’t expected to get in.

“I was just shocked because I was expecting someone sitting in a chair or someone who I could ask questions to. I was so sort of shocked by the situation, and I’m used to filming with gunfire and difficult situations and I found myself fumbling to get out my flip cam.”

And when I was walking in I was thinking to myself, okay, what am I going to ask him, what’s the order of the questions, and I get in the room and there’s this guy lying on a bed…and I was just shocked because I was expecting someone sitting in a chair or someone who I could ask questions to. I was so sort of shocked by the situation, and I’m used to filming with gunfire and difficult situations and I found myself fumbling to get out my flip cam. but I spoke with the family in the room for maybe a minute or so before I felt that the ice was broken before I could take out my camera and I wasn’t going to get thrown out of the room. There was no conversation while I was walking in about what I could do…there was just a rather abrupt entry into his room. I rolled about four minutes in the flip cam – so I was inside there total for about ten minutes.

>>>>NEXT PAGE: Robertson reveals his thoughts on whether or not Megrahi is “faking” his coma.