Decision described as momentous but we’ve been here before
Nearly 30 years on from the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, the story of the Lockerbie bombing is far from being over.
Yesterday the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ( SCCRC) announced it will carry out a full review of the conviction of Abdelbaset al- Megrahi, a decision described as “momentous” by those who believe the former Libyan intelligence officer was innocent.
The decision could yet lead to the courts allowing Megrahi’s family to appeal his conviction, despite his death in 2012. If it all seems familiar, that’s because we’ve been here before.
In 2007, the SCCRC referred the case to the High Court after deciding there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
A subsequent appeal by a then terminally ill Megrahi was later abandoned when it emerged he was to be released from prison on what the Scottish Government called compassionate grounds.
Theories involving secretive political deals have abounded ever since.
In reaching its decision yesterday, the SCCRC said it believed Megrahi had dropped his appeal in the “genuine and reasonable belief ” that doing so would enable him to return home to Libya.
Embarrassingly for the Scottish Government, the only man convicted of the UK’S worst- ever terrorist atrocity went on to live for a further three years despite doctors believing he had only months to live.
Given its decision in 2007, it seems likely the SCCRC will eventually refer the case to the High Court, allowing another appeal to go ahead.
An interesting aside is the long- running Police Scotland investigation examining allegations made about the prosecution of Megrahi at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands 18 years ago.
Now in its fifth year, Operation Sandwood is looking at a number of complaints from the Justice For Megrahi group which claims prosecutors, police and forensic officials attempted to pervert the course of justice in the run- up to the trial.
The lengthy police investigation is said to be in its concluding stages, although that’s been the force’s position for the past two years.
All this comes just months before the 30- year anniversary of the bombing, which claimed 270 innocent lives.
Three decades on, the only man ever convicted of their murder is dead but Scottish justice remains in the dock.