The trial of a man accused of being involved in the Lockerbie bombing will renew confidence in the justice process around the case claims Scotland’s most senior law officer.
In what remains Britain’s deadliest terrorist atrocity, all 259 passengers and crew onboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people on the ground were killed when the plane exploded above the Scottish town in 1988. Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of the murders of 270 people in 2001 by the introduction of an explosive device onto a civilian aircraft.
However, prosecutors have always maintained that Megrahi acted with others in carrying out the attack. Libyan national Abu Agila Masud, who is alleged to have helped make the bomb, is due to go on trial in the US in May 2025 facing three charges, which he denies.
As the 36th anniversary of the explosion approaches, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC acknowledged that “not everyone shares the same view” as the Crown about the incident, but said next year’s trial will enable the circumstances of what happened to be “fully understood”.
“The bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie was the darkest of days but the dignity of the hundreds of families so dreadfully affected has always shone as a point of light guiding the pursuit of justice,” she said. “Scotland’s prosecutors and police, working with counterparts in the United States have remained steadfast in our commitment to uncovering the truth and holding those responsible accountable.
“The original trial at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands considered Crown evidence from 227 witnesses over 72 days. Megrahi was convicted and that decision has been upheld twice at appeal. Despite this long-running and intense scrutiny, I am aware that not everyone shares the same view of the Crown case.
“I have always believed in the power of the legal process as a tool for fairness and public trust. The forthcoming trial in Washington will bring the facts of this case before the public again, and the circumstances of what happened can be fully understood.”
Scotland’s prosecution service said parts of the wreckage of the downed plane were being transferred to the US as evidence ahead of the trial, earlier this month. The plane exploded above Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, on December 21 1988, 40 minutes into its flight from London to New York.
Megrahi is the only man convicted in relation to the bombing, after being found guilty of 270 counts of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, sitting at a special court in the Hague in 2001. He was sent to prison in Scotland but was controversially granted compassionate release in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, returning home to Libya where he died in 2012.
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