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Application on behalf of Lockerbie bombing convict refused in Scotland

Xinhua, November 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission announced Thursday that the application was refused to review the conviction of the late Libyan Abdelbaset al Megrahi for the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.

The Board of the Commission decided that "it is not in the interests of justice" to continue with a review of the conviction of Megrahi after the current application was received in June 2014.

The Commission's Chairman, Jean Couper, said: "It remains open in the future for the matter to be considered again by the Commission, but it is unlikely that any future application will be accepted for review unless it is accompanied with the appropriate defence papers. This will require the cooperation of the late Mr Megrahi's solicitors and his family."

The Pan Am flight 103, which was on its way from London to New York when it exploded above Lockerbie in southern Scotland on the evening of Dec. 21, 1988, killing a total of 270 people.

Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the murder of the 259 passengers and crew on board the flight as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie, and given a life sentence. He subsequently appealed his conviction and his appeal was refused by the High Court in 2002.

Megrahi previously applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission for a review of his conviction in 2003, and his case was referred by the Commission to the High Court for a new appeal in 2007. Megrahi subsequently abandoned his second appeal in 2009.

Megrahi was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and granted the decision of freedom under compassionate release rules on Aug. 20, 2009. Megrahi died in Tripoli, Libya in May 2012.

The investigation into the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie remains live and the British, the United States and Libyan governments pledged to bring all those responsible for the most brutal act of terrorism to justice, and to reveal the full facts of the case.

Last month, the Scottish prosecution service said two Libyans were named as new suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing, and requested to interview in Tripoli the two individuals suspected of involvement with the bombing, along with Megrahi. Enditem