Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people in 1988, Libya's former justice minister has claimed.
Swedish newspaper Expressen said Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told their correspondent in Libya: "I have proof that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie." The comments were translated from Arabic to Swedish.
Mr Abdel-Jalil stepped down as justice minister in protest the violence against anti-government demonstrations.
Abdel-Jalil did not describe the proof.
He told Expressen Gaddafi gave the order to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
"To hide it, he (Gaddafi) did everything in his power to get al-Megrahi back from Scotland," Abdel-Jalil said.
Al-Megrahi was granted a compassionate release from a Scottish prison in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and would die soon. He is still alive.
The Expressen said its reporter, Kassem Hamade, interviewed the ex-justice minister at "a local parliament in a large city in Libya."
Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid compensation to the victims' families. But he has not admitted personally giving the order for the attack.
Most of the victims in the Lockerbie bombing were Americans, and al-Megrahi's release has been criticised by members of the US Congress and the victims' families.
Bob Monetti, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, whose 20-year-old son Richard was one of the dead, said he was glad to hear a former official say what has been clear to him all along. He said officials and the media, especially in Britain, had been denying that.
"Ever since the trial, which was held in a totally obscure location in Holland and was covered by nobody, there's been a drumbeat in the UK about how this is a trumped up thing and Libya had nothing to do with it," he said.
"If you went to the trial, there was no question about who did it and why, and who ordered it."
Mr Monetti said he has been following coverage of the Libyan uprising closely.
"I can't wait until we see pictures of Gaddafi hanging by his heels," he said.