Far more questions than answers on path to truth
1988 December 21: Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes 31,000ft over Lockerbie. All 259 people on board the Boeing 747 Maid of the Seas – 243 passengers and 16 crew – are killed, along with 11 from the town.
1990 October 1 to February 13, 1991: Fatal accident inquiry held at Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries. In the determination, sheriff principal John S Mowat QC concludes “that the primary cause of the deaths was murder”.
1991 November 13 and 14: As a result of the criminal inquiry led by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and a three-year joint investigation with the FBI, indictments for murder are issued against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, an alleged Libyan intelligence officer, and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, the Libyan Arab Airlines station manager at Luqa Airport, Malta.
1999 April 5: Following United Nations Security Council sanctions against Libya and negotiations with then Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the handover of the accused to Scottish police at Kamp Van Zeist is secured.
2000 May 3 to Jan 31: Trial of accused. Megrahi is found guilty and handed a life sentence. Fhimah is cleared.
2002 January 23 to February 14: Megrahi’s appeal is refused.
2003 September 23: Lawyers for Megrahi apply to Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for a review of the conviction.
2003 November 24: Megrahi is informed he will have to serve at least 27 years in jail, backdated to his extradition from Libya in 1999.
2009 August 20: Megrahi is freed from Greenock Prison on compassionate grounds due to terminal illness and leaves for Libya.
2011 July: Meghrahi’s televised appearance at a political rally is branded “an insult to the memory of those who died”.
2012 Jan: During a TV programme Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter, Flora, was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, seeks answers in Tripoli.
2012 May: Death of Megrahi in Tripoli, aged 60.
2013 December: Libya appoints two prosecutors to work alongside Scottish and US prosecutors and investigators.
2015 July 3: Judges rule that relatives of victims should not be allowed to pursue an appeal on Megrahi’s behalf.
2015
October: Scottish prosecutors announce they are seeking two Libyans identified as suspects, understood to be Gaddafi’s former spy chief and brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi and Abu Agila Masud.
2017 July 4: Megrahi’s family lodge a new bid to appeal his conviction.
2020 March. The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission say Megrahi’s conviction can be taken to a fresh appeal.
2020 November. Scottish judges hear the third appeal against Megrahi’s conviction.
2022 December. US says Masud is in its custody.