Last updated: August 21, 2009 4:53 pm

Megrahi case stirs Lockerbie memories

The Scottish government’s decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds has reawakened memories of the Lockerbie tragedy and raised fresh doubts about the merits of his conviction.

IN Visual Journalism

Mr Megrahi, 57, was serving a 27-year sentence for the murder of 270 people, most of them American, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up in 1988 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board
The crash scattered debris through the town, destroying houses and leaving a deep gash in the ground. Eleven residents of Lockerbie died in the disaster
The US and Britain accused two Libyans, Abdelbasset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi (pictured) and Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima, of carrying out the bombing. Libya refused to extradite them but held them under house arrest in Tripoli until 1998, when their lawyers agreed that they could be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law
In 1999, eleven years after the bombing, Mr Megrahi and Mr Fahima were placed under arrest at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands
During their trial, the two Libyans denied the charges, suggesting that two Palestinian groups had been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing
In January 2001, the Scottish judges found Mr Megrahi guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison. Mr Fahima was acquitted
Relatives of the victims celebrated the verdict, believing that at last justice had been done, although some doubts had surfaced about the strength of the evidence against the Libyans
Mr Megrahi lost his first appeal in 2002 but was given a new chance to appeal against his conviction five years later when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said it believed a miscarriage of justice might have occurred
A year later, Libya reached political agreement with the US and Britain to accept civil responsibility and pay up to $10m per victim in compensation
Kenny MacAskill, Scottish justice secretary, announced his decision on August 20 2009 to release Mr Megrahi on compassionate grounds, to the dismay of the White House, which expressed "deep regret" at the decision
A muffled and shell-suited Mr Megrahi arrives at Glasgow airport carrying a walking stick to board an airplane home
©Getty
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, left using stick, is accompanied by Seif al-Islam el-Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi, on his arrival at an airport in Tripoli to be greeted by crowds waving Libyan and Scottish flags

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