Scottish prosecutors have identified two new Libyan suspects in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing
Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was the only person convicted over the attack, which killed 270 people, but doubts have lingered over the investigation.
A quarter-century after one of the worst terror attacks in British history, prosecutors say they have identified two new Libyan suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and want US and Scottish investigators to interview them in Tripoli. Given Libya’s instability, that may be a remote prospect.
Scotland’s Crown Office said Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch had agreed there’s “a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and US investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects” in the bombing of Flight 103.
I feel like I pushed it as far as I could as a filmmaker and now it’s up to governments
It said Scotland and the US were asking Libyan authorities to help Scottish detectives and FBI officers interview the suspects. The office said the Libyans are suspected of involvement with Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the attack.
A bomb shattered the New York-bound Boeing 747 as it flew over Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. Many of the victims were American college students flying home for Christmas.
The complex and unfinished Lockerbie investigation is tied up with Libya’s relationship with the West. In 1988, dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya was a pariah state accused by Western governments of sponsoring terrorism.
In 1999, Gaddafi handed over al-Megrahi and a second suspect – later acquitted – to Scottish authorities after years of punishing UN sanctions. In 2003, Gaddafi acknowledged responsibility, though not guilt, for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation of about US$2.7 billion to the victims’ families. He also pledged to dismantle all weapons of mass destruction and joined the US-led fight against terrorism.
