Lockerbie bomber appeal set to start in Scotland

A posthumous legal challenge to overturn the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Mohmet Al-Megrahi is due to begin in Scotland on Tuesday. Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord Justice General Colin Sutherland, and four other judges at the country’s highest criminal court will hear the case via video link.

The legal team for Megrahi’s family will take part remotely from Glasgow. The case is due to last for three to four days with a ruling at a later date.

The family’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said Megrahi’s conviction has been described as “the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.”

He added: “There can never be a time limit on justice. The families who support this appeal have never

given up their search for the truth.” Megrahi was the only person convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, which was blown up as it traveled from London to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. A total of 270 people from 21 countries were killed — 243 passengers, 16 crew, and 11 people on the ground — in what remains Britain’s biggest terrorist attack. Three Scottish judges sitting at a special court sitting in the Netherlands jailed the former Libyan intelligence officer for life in 2001, recommending he serve at least 27 years.

His first appeal was dismissed in 2002 but he was released in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He returned to Libya, where he died in Tripoli three years later.

His family’s appeal was referred to the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) in March.