Appeal in Lockerbie Bombing Reaches Scotland’s Highest Court

Scotland’s highest court docket started listening to a posthumous attraction on Tuesday for a Libyan man convicted within the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner that killed 270 folks over the city of Lockerbie, the deadliest terrorist assault in Britain.

The attraction, lodged by the household of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the one particular person discovered responsible within the midair blast, is the newest flip in a decades-long case that left many particulars unresolved. Mr. al-Megrahi insisted on his innocence until his death in 2012,

“We’re in possession of a lot proof that now we have not revealed publicly,” mentioned Aamer Anwar, a lawyer for Mr. al-Megrahi’s household, including that in his dying breath Mr. al-Megrahi had wished to clear his identify. “The Megrahis regard their father because the 271st sufferer of Lockerbie.”

A spokesman for Crown prosecutors declined to remark, citing the persevering with attraction. The prosecutors have mentioned that they’d “rigorously defend” the conviction.

The flight, Pan Am 103, had been touring to New York from London on Dec. 21, 1988, when a bomb aboard detonated because it flew over the Scottish city of Lockerbie, killing 259 passengers and crew members and 11 folks on the bottom. Mr. al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer who was working undercover at Libya’s state airline, was convicted of organizing the bombing in an uncommon 2001 trial within the Netherlands below Scottish legislation and sentenced to life in jail, with a 27-year minimal time period.

He twice appealed the choice, insisting on his innocence, however deserted the second effort after creating terminal most cancers to maximise his likelihood of being launched on compassionate grounds. He returned to Libya in 2009.

His return, escorted by Saif al-Islam, the son of the Libyan chief Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and greeted with cheers in Libya, angered many families of the victims, notably Individuals. The bombing got here at a time of accelerating tensions between the USA and Libya, and prosecutors mentioned Mr. al-Megrahi was appearing as a terrorist for the federal government. Libya has denied involvement however paid $2.7 billion to the victims’ families in 2003 to finish the nation’s diplomatic isolation.

Different households have lobbied for the case to be re-examined, saying they don’t imagine Mr. Megrahi was responsible, and a few authorized consultants have thrown doubts on the proof offered on the trial.

The conviction was a “miscarriage of justice,” mentioned Robert Black, professor emeritus of Scots Regulation on the College of Edinburgh, who helped conceive the concept of holding the nonjury trial within the Netherlands and has urged a reopening of the case. Evaluations of the case by an unbiased government-financed physique have referred it to Scotland’s Excessive Courtroom for an additional examination.

If the household misplaced this third attraction, “that’s the finish of the road,” Mr. Black mentioned. But when profitable, he added, it might make the Lockerbie bombing an unsolved crime with out a wrongdoer.

The attraction will look at whether evidence at the trial justified a responsible verdict. That may concentrate on proof together with that of an important witness, Tony Gauci, a Maltese shopkeeper who recognized Mr. al-Megrahi as the customer of clothes linked to the bomb.

However it emerged later that Mr. Gauci was at occasions inconsistent in recognizing Mr. al-Megrahi and that he had already seen a photograph of him linked to the bombing earlier than talking with the police.

A few of Mr. al-Megrahi’s supporters and his household have pointed to a Syrian-based militant group, the Well-liked Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine-Normal Command, alleging that Iran ordered the assault as retaliation towards the USA. Iran has denied involvement.

On Thursday, a decide additionally declined a request by Mr. al-Megrahi’s household for access to protected government documents, saying it may hurt the nationwide safety of the UK. Crown prosecutors in 2015 additionally mentioned they have been looking at two other Libyan suspects concerned within the bombing.

The case has had an everlasting worldwide legacy, consultants mentioned. Earlier than the investigation into the bombing, “there had by no means been something comparable with so many governments concerned,” Mr. Black mentioned, including that it “set the usual for worldwide cooperation.”

If the conviction is overturned, he mentioned that he believed there needs to be an unbiased inquiry supported by the British and American governments. However he mentioned that their enthusiasm for pursuing the case may be wavering, provided that 32 years had handed because the bombing.