Libya's NTC says Lockerbie case closed

[This is the headline over a report published this evening by the Reuters news agency.  It reads in part:]

The investigation into the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland is closed and Tripoli will not release more evidence that could lead to others being charged, Libya's interim leaders said on Monday.

Scottish prosecutors had asked Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) to give them access to papers or witnesses that could implicate more suspects, possibly including deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

However, Libya's interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi turned them down, telling reporters: "The case is closed." (...)

Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was among those killed in the attack, told Reuters in an emailed statement: "Suggesting that the Lockerbie case is closed is ludicrous.

"I am not surprised that the new interim government might want to avoid getting involved, but this is a miserable attempt to avoid a perfectly reasonable request for any information or evidence that there might be in Libya. Perhaps there is nothing."

No one at Scotland's public prosecution service was available to comment on the Libyan minister's statement. 

[A later edition of the same Reuters report contains the following:]

But the Foreign Office in London said it had talked with the NTC late on Monday and it had promised continued cooperation.

"NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil has already assured the prime minister that the Libyan authorities will cooperate with the UK in this and other ongoing investigations," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

"Having spoken with the NTC this evening, we understand that this remains the case. The police investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open and the police should follow the evidence wherever it leads them."

[A report published on Tuesday 27th on the website of The Wall Street Journal contains the following:]

Libyan Minister of Justice and Human Rights Mr. Mohammed Al-Alagi said at a news conference that he considered the case closed (...)

Mr. Alagi, the interim justice minister, said after the news conference that Libya would in fact consider cooperating on some aspects of the Lockerbie bombing, in a sign of further confusion within the ranks of the interim leadership.

A spokeswoman from the FCO said NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil has already assured Prime Minister David Cameron that the new Libyan authorities will cooperate with the U.K. on Lockerbie and other ongoing investigations.

"Having spoken with the NTC this evening, we understand that this remains the case," the spokeswoman said.  

[The Chinese Xinhua news agency's account of the news conference contains the following:]

Also, the NTC said Monday the convict of the notorious December 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie of Scotland was not to be put on trial again as the case is already closed.

Despite Britain's recent requests for assistance from the new Libyan authorities to re-open the Lockerbie investigation, Mohammed al-Allaqi, chief of justice and human rights issues of the NTC, told a press conference in Tripoli that, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the main convict of Lockerbie bombing, was already tried, convicted and punished, and he was released with the consent of the British government on humanitarian basis. 

So the issue may not be tried twice, that is the basic rule of justice, said al-Allaqi.