Ministers back Lockerbie verdict

Libya's former justice minister has claimed Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing
12 April 2012

The Scottish Government says that it "never doubted" the safety of the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber following reports that Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi ordered the attack.

Terminally-ill Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was freed from prison in Scotland and allowed to return to Libya on compassionate grounds in August 2009.

He is the only man to have been convicted of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 on December 21, 1988, which killed 270 people.

A Swedish newspaper has reported that Col Gaddafi had personally ordered the bombing.

The Expressen said Libya's former justice secretary, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, told their correspondent in Libya: "I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie.

"To hide it, he did everything in his power to get Megrahi back from Scotland."

The comments in the paper were translated from Arabic to Swedish.

Mr Abdel-Jalil stepped down as justice minister in protest at the violence against anti-government demonstrators in Libya.

A statement in response from the Scottish Government, which made the decision to release of Megrahi on compassionate grounds, said: "Ministers have never doubted the safety of the conviction."

An official report published earlier this month said the former UK government did "all it could" to help Libya secure Megrahi's release.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in