Scottish Court Rejects Appeal Over Lockerbie Bomber’s Conviction

(Bloomberg) -- A Scottish court has rejected a third appeal on behalf of the only man convicted of the bombing of an American airliner over the town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Five judges from the Court of Criminal Appeal, led by Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord Carloway, upheld the verdict of the original trial in a written ruling published on Friday. The family of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who died in 2012, argued that the conviction had been a miscarriage of justice.

Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 for the killing of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in southwest Scotland. His release in 2009 caused a political storm, with the Scottish government attacked by the U.S., the families of victims and U.K. political parties.

The Libyan was released on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was given a hero’s welcome on his return home and lived for another three years.

All 259 passengers and crew on board the flight were killed, along with 11 people in and around the town.

“The bombing of Pan Am 103 is, to this day, the deadliest terrorist attack on U.K. soil and the largest homicide case Scotland’s prosecutors have ever encountered in terms of scale and of complexity,” Lord Advocate James Wolffe said in a statement following the ruling. “The evidence gathered by Scottish, U.S. and international law enforcement agencies has again been tested in the Appeal Court; and the conviction” of al-Megrahi “stands.”

The latest appeal followed a decision by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission last year, when it ruled that a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred. The panel decided to review the case because it said al-Megrahi abandoned his previous appeal due to a belief it would secure his release from prison and help him return to Libya.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.