No hiding place
Hunt for all of those behind the Lockerbie bombing will continue until they are finally brought to justice, vows Solicitor General
A LEADING prosecutor yest erday t old r el atives of Lockerbie bombing victims that the hunt would go on until everyone responsible was brought to justice.
Solicitor General for Scotland Lesley Thomson delivered the pledge to an audience at Syracuse University during an event marking the atrocity’s 25th anniversary.
The university in New York state lost 35 students when PanAm flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie in 1988 and a memorial week is held at the college every year in their honour.
The Solicitor General made a keynote address t o an audience that included family members of victims.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Meg-
‘He was involved in this murder’
rahi was jailed for the attack and sentenced to 27 years in 2001.
But the Scottish Government released him on ‘compassionate’ grounds in August 2009, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died nearly three years later.
The move sparked fury in the US but Miss Thomson said the Crown remain committed to finding the others involved.
She added: ‘The conviction of Megrahi is by no means the end of this journey. I’m going to leave you with my assurance that Scotland’s prosecutors are absolutely determined that the passage of time will afford no protection to those who have thus far evaded justice.
‘In the context of the Lockerbie case, prosecutors are being asked things like: “Do you really think he did it?” So for the avoidance of doubt, let me make one thing clear. This case was prosecuted before three judges at a trial. It was argued before five judges on appeal. Our position was and remains that Megrahi was involved in this murder and that he was acting with others to further the cause of the Libyan regime and of Gaddafi.’
The bombing of PanAm Flight 103 above Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, on December 21, 1988, killed 270 people.
Libya eventually admitted its part in the atrocity and handed over intelligence officers Megrahi and Lamen Khalifah Fhimah to be tried in a Scottish court set up in the Netherlands.
The Libyans also paid £1.4billion to families of victims, but the new regime in Tripoli is concerned that it may have to pay more as a result of the ongoing investigation.
However, the probe suffered a setback yesterday after the International Criminal Court ruled that former Libyan spy chief Abdullah Senussi will not face a war crimes trial in The Hague.
Instead, the former right-hand man of Gaddafi will face court in his home country. It means that Scots prosecutors now stand little chance of questioning him over the Lockerbie bombing.
Under international law, every country has the first right – and the obligation – to try suspected war criminals.