Lockerbie bombing: Libyan government set to release files

[This is the headline over a report published this morning on the BBC News website.  It reads as follows:]

The new Libyan government in Tripoli is prepared to open all files relating to the Lockerbie bombing, the country's ambassador to the UK has confirmed.

However, Mahmud Nacua said it would be at least another year before Libya was in a position to release whatever information it holds.

The move comes on the 24th anniversary of the of bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland, which killed 270 people.

Bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi died this year after being released in 2009.

Megrahi, a Libyan agent, was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds, suffering from terminal prostate cancer.

He remains the only person ever convicted of the bombing, but Scottish police hope to pursue other suspects in Libya following the country's revolution and downfall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011.

Scotland's top prosecutor recently wrote to the new Libyan prime minister for help and the UK government has said it was pressing Tripoli "for swift progress and co-operation" on the Lockerbie case.

Mr Nacua told the BBC no formal agreement had yet been reached, but that Libya would open the files it holds on the case.

He said that would only come when his government had fully established security and stability - a process he believes will take at least a year.

In April of this year, Scotland's Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland travelled to Tripoli with the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, requesting co-operation after the fall of Gaddafi.

This was followed in May by a meeting with Libya's interim prime minister in London to discuss further inquires into the bombing.

At the time, a Crown Office spokesman said: "The prime minister asked for clarification on a number of issues relating to the conduct of the proposed investigation in Libya and the lord advocate has undertaken to provide this.

"The prime minister made it clear that he recognised the seriousness of this crime and following the clarification he would take this forward as a priority." 

[A report just published on the Telegraph website contains the following:]

Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the atrocity, welcomed the development but said the truth would not be discovered until “the nonsense of the case against Megrahi” had been exposed.

Dr Swire, the former spokesman for the British relatives of Lockerbie group, said: “Where Libya is concerned, we may discover some mischief from the Gaddafi days but the more urgent matter is showing Megrahi was not involved.”

Referring to Megrahi’s conviction, he said: “It is de facto protecting those responsible from investigation. Anything that might reveal something about the truth is welcome but Scotland is the first place to look.”

Robert Forrester, secretary of the Justice for Megrahi campaign group, said: "It is excellent news on the grounds that more openness on the part of all governments involved in this, not just Libya but Scotland, the UK and the US, is to be welcomed.”