Lockerbie bombing: Megrahi s posthumous appeal rejected by Scottish judges
Five Scottish judges have upheld the 2001 verdict against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the only person convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Last week s decision is the second time an appeal on Megrahi s behalf has been rejected by the courts amid the continued suppression of contradictory evidence.
In 2002, an initial appeal was thrown out. In 2009, Megrahi, already terminally ill, was tacitly offered release from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds if a contemporary appeal was dropped as part of rapprochement between the Libyan and British governments. The most recent appeal was launched by Megrahi s son, Ali Al-Megrahi, to clear his father s name posthumously.
Five judges at Scotland's highest court of criminal appeal on Friday upheld the conviction of the only man found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing after a posthumous legal challenge. The family of former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, which brought the case, said they were "heartbroken" at the decision, their lawyer Aamer Anwar said. They will apply.
Last modified on Fri 15 Jan 2021 23.37 EST
The family of the Libyan convicted for the Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, are lodging an appeal to the UK supreme court after Scottish judges threw out a miscarriage of justice case.
The court of appeal in Edinburgh ruled on Friday that Megrahi was properly convicted of bombing Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, killing 270 passengers, crew and townspeople.
The court, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, rejected both grounds of appeal from Megrahi’s family, lodged after the Scottish criminal cases review commission, an official body which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice, returned the case to court.