Lockerbie bomber’s relatives in bid to clear his name

The family of the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing joined relatives of the victims of the attack this week in demanding a fresh effort to overturn his murder conviction for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Baset al-Megrahi long denied his involvement in the attack that killed 270 people, many of them Americans. The bomb on board the New Yorkbound Boeing 747 went off as it flew over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.

But al-Megrahi dropped his appeal to clear the path for his early release on compassionate grounds. He died two years ago.

Malta is inextricably tied to the tragedy, the courts having found that Malta was where the bomb had begun its fatal journey when it was placed aboard a flight out of Malta International Airport, where al-Megrahi worked for Libyan Arab Airlines.

Certain that the truth has not yet emerged, two dozen British families have applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to take a fresh look. Jim Swire, a leading voice for some of the British families, believes al-Megrahi was innocent.

“If you had a daughter aged 23 who was both beautiful and highly intelligent, and she was brutally murdered in a situation where it’s clear that the national protection security services had abysmally failed, do you not think that even 25 years later you might want to feel that you had a status in discovering the truth about who murdered her and why she was not protected?” Mr Swire said.

Three volumes of papers were handed to the Commission, which reviews alleged miscarriages of justice. The Commission will decide whether or not to review the Lockerbie case.

The families say the appeal is based in part on new evidence suggesting that al-Megrahi was pressured to drop his appeal. Though governments in London and Edinburgh have denied it, accusations have long swirled around that London sought his release to protect business interests in oil-rich Libya.

Leaked US diplomatic memos showed that Tripoli had warned that if al-Megrahi died in a Scottish prison, all British commercial activity in Libya would be cut off.