Court rejects Lockerbie bomber’s challenge

The family of Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi lost an appeal against his conviction for bombing Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Five judges at the Scottish appeal court on Friday rejected the posthumous challenge. Megrahi, the lone convict in the case, protested innocence until his death in 2012.

His family said they were heartbroken and planned to approach the UK’s highest court.

Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 after being found guilty of the murder of 243 passengers,16 crew and 11 residents of Lockerbie who died in the attack on the aircraft flying from London to New York. Most of the dead were Americans.

His conviction followed years of sanctions, diplomatic deals and political wrangling between the US, UK and Libya that resulted in a special Scottish court being convened in the Netherlands.

Megrahi’s co-defendant – Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah – was acquitted but the former intelligence officer served seven years in a Scottish prison before his release in 2009 on compassionate grounds after a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He returned to Libya to a hero’s welcome and died there three years later.

In 2003, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi accepted his country’s responsibility for the bombing and paid $2.7 billion compensation to the victims’ families, but did not admit to personally ordering the attack.

Megrahi’s family and some relatives of the Scottish victims always doubted his guilt.

Megrahi first appealed in 2002 but this was rejected by Scotland’s High Court. A second appeal was abandoned in 2009 just before his return to Libya.

Prosecutors said Megrahi’s use of a false passport to Malta pointed to his guilt. The bomb is believed to have been loaded on to a plane on the Mediterranean island bound for Frankfurt, where it connected with Flight 103.

But lawyers for the family challenged the claim and disputed the evidence of a Maltese shopkeeper, who claimed he sold clothing to Megrahi that was found wrapped around the bomb packed inside a suitcase.

The appeal followed a ruling by a Scottish justice review body last year that concluded there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Its report found that new information still pointed to Libya and Megrahi being culprits but raised questions about the payment of witnesses and the identity of Megrahi as the man who bought the clothes in Malta.

The US charged a third person – Abu Agila Al Marimi – in connection with the bombing on its 32nd anniversary last month.