July 4 (UPI) — The family of the now-deceased man convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 and killed 270, has filed a new appeal on his behalf Tuesday, a lawyer said.
Family members of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi filed his third appeal to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in Glasgow, lawyer Aamer Anwar confirmed to The Telegraph.
Al-Megrahi died in 2012, three years after being released from prison on compassionate grounds; he returned to his native Libya, where he died from prostate cancer. Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the bombing. His first appeal in 2002 was unsuccessful and he dropped his second bid in 2009 prior to his release from prison.
His widow, Aisha, and son, Ali, filed the posthumous appeal on his behalf.
“The reputation of Scottish law has suffered both at home and internationally because of widespread doubts about the conviction of Mr. al-Megrahi,” Anwar said.
“It is in the interests of justice and restoring confidence in our criminal justice system that these doubts can be addressed. However the only place to determine whether a miscarriage of justice did occur is in the appeal court, where the evidence can be subjected to rigorous scrutiny.”
Al-Megrahi was the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines at the time of the bombing. Prosecutors said items in the suitcase bomb were linked to al-Megrahi, including clothing one shop owner testified he sold to him. But many, including some family members of the victims and former South African President Nelson Mandela, called his conviction a miscarriage of justice. Some believe there wasn’t enough evidence to convict al-Megrahi.
Dr. Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter, Flora, died in the bombing, told Sky News he’s interested in learning the truth of who’s to blame for the bomb.
“Many years ago we met the late Nelson Mandela, who told us no one country should be complainant, prosecutor and judge. As things have worked out, now 28 years later, Scotland has all three roles,” he said.
“We look on this as an opportunity where Scotland can look again at the evidence that is now available and see whether she stands by the verdict that was originally reached.”
