Libyan to get High Court appeal on Lockerbie

Scotland's High Court must hear a new appeal by Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, an independent review body said yesterday.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said it was referring Mr Megrahi's case to the High Court, a step it takes in cases where it believes there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of the bombing of a Pan Am flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 270 people. He is serving a life sentence in a prison near Glasgow.

He took his case to the review commission in September 2003 after his original appeal in 2002 was turned down. The SCCRC announced yesterday's decision in a press release but did not make public its statement of reasons, which runs to more than 800 pages plus numerous volumes of appendices.

Recent history suggests Mr Megrahi's appeal will have a good chance of success - 25 out of 39 cases, or 64 per cent of those settled after being referred by the commission to the High Court, have ended with appeals being granted.

Some victims' relatives and independent observers have long harboured doubts about Mr Megrahi's conviction. These focus on the reliability of prosecution witnesses and forensic evidence.

Libya, seeking international rehabilitation after Washington had branded it for years a rogue state, paid more than $2 billion in compensation to victims' relatives since telling the UN in 2003 it "accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials".

Lawyers and analysts say that carefully worded formula could enable Libya to deny any role if Mr Megrahi's conviction were eventually quashed. Some believe it may even demand compensation from the US and Britain.

At the original trial, three Scottish judges accepted evidence that the bomb was placed aboard a plane in Malta and transferred to a Pan Am "feeder" flight at Frankfurt before ending up on Flight 103 from London's Heathrow to New York on December 21, 1988.

They acknowledged, however, that there were "a number of uncertainties and qualifications" regarding the evidence.

Ever since the bombing, alternative theories have focused on the possible involvement of an Arab militant group, the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, acting at the behest of Iran.

Five months before Lockerbie, the US navy mistakenly shot down an Iranian Airbus in the Gulf, killing 290 people.

"Iran had the most potent motive of anybody for destroying an American airliner," said Jim Swire, a Briton whose daughter Flora was killed on Flight 103 and who speaks on behalf of victims' relatives.