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Hunt goes on

September 26, 2011

Scottish prosecutors have sought help from Libya's interim authorities in tracking down information which could lead to others being charged over the 1988 bombing of a US-bound plane over Lockerbie in Scotland.

https://p.dw.com/p/12gVZ
The wreckage of Pan Am flight 103 near Lockerbie, Scotland
The plane came down in a field near Lockerbie in 1988Image: AP

Scottish prosecutors have asked Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) for help to catch those responsible for the 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie.

"In particular we have asked the NTC to make available to the Crown any documentary evidence and witnesses which could assist in the ongoing enquiries," a spokeswoman for the Scottish Crown Office said on Monday.

The bombing of a New York-bound Pan Am flight over the Scottish town killed 270 people, most of them American. Only one person has been convicted in connection with the bombing, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi emerges from the plane with Seif-al Islam Gadhafi, son of President Gadhafi, in Tripoli, 2009
Convicted man al-Megrahi returned to Libya in 2009Image: AP

Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He made a triumphant return to Libya, where he is still living today.

The Crown Office said his trial had found he had not acted alone, adding that the Lockerbie investigation remains an "open inquiry."

Gadhafi involvement?

Megrahi's co-accused at the specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands in 2000 was Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah who was cleared of mass murder.

He told Sweden's Expressen newspaper last month that deposed leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi should be tried in court over suspicions he ordered the bombing.

"There is a court and he is the one to explain whether he is innocent or not," Fhimah said. "He has to."

In March, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Libya's former justice minister and now its interim leader, said he had evidence of Gadhafi's involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Author: Joanna Impey (AP, Reuters)
Editor: Nancy Isenson