Borders MSP welcomes ruling on Lockerbie bombing conviction

That finding, announced last week, clears the way for a posthumous appeal to the High Court on the late Libyan intelligence officer’s behalf and, if successful, for renewed efforts to be made to identify other suspects.

Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale MSP Ms Grahame is a member of the Justice for Megrahi Campaign and has long believed the former head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines to have been a scapegoat.

She said: “This is excellent news after a long campaign by many, including Megrahi’s family, and means that at long last all the available evidence from this murderous attack will be brought out in the High Court on appeal.

“It has been for almost a decade that I have believed that the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was not secure, but as he abandoned his appeal against conviction in August 2009 to secure release back to his family in Libya, suffering then from terminal cancer, the search for the truth of that dreadful night has been delayed too long.

“There are some relatives of victims who will not welcome an appeal, but I say gently to them that over the years they have not been told the truth.

“I remain of the view that it was a revenge attack by the Iranians for the American military cruiser the USS Vincennes shooting down an Iranian passenger plane carrying 290 pilgrims one month previously. Indeed, following that incident, the Iranians vowed revenge on the US.

“That made sense all those years ago and still does today.

“It is now for the appeal court at last to determine in part the truth of that terrible night, and I trust that we will not have to wait another year for this to proceed to court.

“For the ageing victims’ families and friends and in memory of the victims themselves, this should not be delayed but prioritised.”

The commission has ruled that a review of Megrahi’s conviction met two statutory tests for referral – that it might have been a miscarriage of justice and it would be in the interests of justice to refer it back to court.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar made the review application on behalf of Megrahi’s family, supported by some of the families of those killed in the disaster.

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to the US on December 21, 1988, killed 259 people on board and a further 11 on the ground in the Dumfries and Galloway town of Lockerbie, making it Britain’s largest-ever terrorist atrocity.

Megrahi is the only person ever convicted in connection with the bombing, being found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.

Megrahi’s first appeal against his conviction was rejected by the High Court in 2002 but referred back five years later following a review.

He abandoned that appeal in 2009, though, shortly before his release from prison on compassionate grounds, and he died in 2012.

Another application to the commission for a review was made on Megrahi’s behalf in 2014, but it decided it would not be in the interests of justice to proceed with it in 2015 due to difficulties in accessing defence documents.

A further application, lodged in 2017, has now been referred to the High Court for determination, however.

Scottish Government justice secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The decision to refer Megrahi’s case back to court was entirely a matter for the independent Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to make.

“My thoughts continue to be with all those who lost loved ones on that terrible evening more than 30 years ago.”