DNA extracted from Lockerbie bomb suitcase, 37 years after atrocity

[This is the headline over a report published in today's edition of The Sunday Times. It reads in part:]

Forensic experts have extracted DNA from the suitcase containing the Lockerbie bomb for the first time and will seek to match it against swabs taken from the Libyan explosives chief accused of Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

Advances in technology have allowed Scottish scientists to gather DNA from the suitcase lining and an umbrella packed into the luggage before Pam Am Flight 103 exploded in mid-air in December 1988, killing 270 people.

Prosecutors hope the new evidence could match samples from Abu Agila Masud, 74, the alleged bomb-maker, who is waiting to go on trial in America.

The potential breakthrough is outlined in US court papers obtained by The Sunday Times. The documents identify a list of expert witnesses for the prosecution, including Dr Nighean Stevenson, a leading authority in DNA analysis at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA). She has re-examined exhibits retrieved from the crash site more than three decades ago. (...)

The only suspect convicted to date is Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer who was jailed for life in 2001 following a trial in the Netherlands presided over by Scottish judges.

Megrahi was released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds in 2009 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He lived for another 33 months, dying at his home in Tripoli, aged 60.

A co-defendant in Megrahi’s trial, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, another Libyan intelligence officer, 69, was acquitted. However, he remains the subject of an active US arrest warrant.

Masud’s name came up in the original investigation into the atrocity after Scottish police, aided by the FBI, established that the bomb had travelled in an unaccompanied suitcase from Malta to Heathrow, via Frankfurt, before being loaded on to Flight 103. However, investigators were unable to trace him. [RB: The theory that the bomb on Pan Am 103 was in a suitcase offloaded from the feeder flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow has been convincingly demolished by Dr Morag Kerr in her book Adequately Explained by Stupidity? Lockerbie, Luggage and Lies.]

It was only after the fall of Colonel Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, in 2011 that Masud, a bomb-maker for the Libyan External Security Organisation, the intelligence service, was detained by opposition forces.

He was extradited to the US at the end of 2022 after allegedly confessing to building the Lockerbie bomb and taking it in a suitcase from Tripoli to Malta. [RB: Masud was not extradited. He was abducted from his home by a local warlord, sold on to US authorities and then the victim of extraordinary rendition to the United States.] His defence team are set to argue that the confession was extracted in Libya under duress, and is therefore inadmissible. He has entered a not guilty plea.

That means a DNA match between items from the bomb suitcase and Masud could be highly significant.

“If you’ve got his DNA [in the suitcase] … it would knock down the building blocks of his potential defence,” said Dick Marquise, the FBI special agent who led the US end of the original investigation.

Marquise said he was not aware of any DNA evidence collected in the immediate aftermath of the bombing in 1988. “It was much too new a science,” he added. (...)

Outlining her expertise as a potential prosecution witness, US court papers state: “Dr Stevenson examined items relating to an umbrella and an item relating to the lining of a suitcase.

“These items were examined using specialised lighting, and DNA samples were taken from each. The DNA profiles obtained from these items were of varying quality and were generally commensurate with the expectations of these items.”

The document continues: “Analysis of a DNA reference sample relating to the accused nominal [Masud] has yet to be carried out. When a DNA profile relating to this individual has been generated, it will thereafter be compared to any suitable DNA profiles which have already been obtained.”

This weekend it remained unclear whether a DNA match had been found. However, software used by Stevenson’s team is able to generate a “likelihood ratio” of a “person of interest” contributing to a specific DNA profile rather than other individuals.

In theory, the tests could also prove whether Megrahi had handled items packed into the bomb suitcase.

Part of the evidence against him in 2001 revolved around the testimony of a Maltese shop owner, who claimed Megrahi had bought various items of clothing and an umbrella from his business days before the Lockerbie attack.

Masud’s trial in Washington was due to start last month. However, the complexity of the case and the defendant’s poor health have led to it being pushed back until spring.

In his alleged confession, made in a Libyan jail in 2012, Masud named both Megrahi and Fhimah as co-conspirators.

A criminal complaint filed by the FBI states: “Approximately three months after [the bombing], Masud and Fhimah met with the then Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi, and others, who thanked them for carrying out a great national duty against the Americans, and Gadaffi added that the operation was a total success.”

[RB: The following comment is from an article published today on Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer's Intel Today website:]

The Old “Look at the Door” Trick

Henri Landru was a French serial killer tried in 1921. During World War I, he posed as a lonely widower seeking companionship through classified ads. In reality, he lured wealthy widows to his villa in Gambais, murdered them, and allegedly disposed of their bodies in his oven.

Ten women—and the teenage son of one of them—disappeared after visiting Landru. There were no bodies, no direct eyewitnesses, and no confession. The entire case was built on circumstantial evidence, which left—just barely—room for reasonable doubt.

Landru’s defense lawyer, Vincent de Moro Giafferri, was a master of courtroom theatrics. During his closing argument, he focused on the absence of physical proof. He knew that if he could shake the jury’s certainty, he might save his client from the guillotine.

At a dramatic moment, Moro Giafferri played a psychological card. As he neared the end of his plea, he said something like:

“One of the women Landru is accused of killing—what if she is still alive? What if she walked through that door right now?”

He gestured toward the courtroom entrance. And naturally, every juror turned to look. Then came the punchline:

“Ladies and gentlemen, you all looked. That means you’re not sure. And in our justice system, if there is doubt, it must benefit the accused.”

Back to Lockerbie

It was a brilliant moment—simple, theatrical, unforgettable. A masterclass in planting uncertainty.Now, 37 years after the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, US authorities claim they have extracted DNA from the suitcase believed to have held the bomb.

The sample is being tested to determine whether it matches that of Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, the Libyan man accused of constructing the device.

Let’s be clear: the FBI and the US DoJ know the DNA won’t match. The purpose of this operation isn’t to prove Masud’s guilt — it’s to perform certainty. It’s the modern version of the “look at the door” trick.

Only this time, it’s not the defense gesturing at the door. It’s the prosecution — and they already know no one’s coming through. Because this trial isn’t for a jury. It’s for public consumption.

By conducting a highly publicized DNA analysis — decades after the fact, with compromised evidence — they aren’t seeking truth.

They’re selling belief. They’re telling the world: “We’re still working the case. We believe in the evidence. We believe in the guilt.”

But they don’t. And we know it.

ADDENDUM

RB: I am grateful to John Ashton for the following comment on the above article:

A couple of points re the DNA story in The Sunday Times. The SCCRC, in its original review, considered a DNA trace on one of the umbrella fragments – see paras 4.50 to 4.56 of the Statement of Reasons). The results, while inconclusive, pointed to the Crown forensic experts. Also attached is a photo of the circuit board fragment from the crown forensic report (see below). All the photos in the report were taken at RARDE. The fact that the fragment was resting on a bare fingertip suggests a lack of regard for DNA evidence (and, for that matter, fingerprint evidence).

Lockerbie bombing suspect's trial scheduled for 20 April 2026

[What follows is the text of a report just published on the website of the United Arab Emirates newspaper The National:]

The US judge overseeing the case of Lockerbie bombing suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Masud has set jury selection for April 20, 2026.

Judge Dabney Friedrich acknowledged the “complicated nature” and “voluminous discovery of evidence” in the case surrounding the 1988 attack that resulted in the explosion of a Pan Am flight and the deaths of 270 people in Scotland.

Mr Masud, 73, limped into court and donned headphones to listen to the status conference in Arabic. He looked straight ahead for the whole proceedings, never glancing at victims' families, who took up several rows of court seats.

He didn't appear to communicate with his court-appointed lawyer [RB: Whitney Minter] during proceedings. In 2023, Mr Masud pleaded not guilty in connection to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in UK and US history.

Only one other person, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted for the bombing. After his conviction in 2001, Megrahi spent seven years in a Scottish prison, but he was eventually released on compassionate grounds and died in Libya in 2012. In 2003, Libya claimed responsibility for the attack that brought down the plane. [RB: Libya did not "claim responsibility for the attack". It accepted "responsibility for the acts of its officials": https://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2008/08/libyan-august-2003-acceptance-of.html]

The US government filed charges against Mr Masud in 2020, but it took more than two years to extradite him from Libya. [RB: Masud was not extradited from Libya. He was abducted from his home by a local warlord and sold to US authorities who then transferred him to the United States without either his own consent or that of the judicial authorities of Libya.] Mr Masud's health problems, lawyer changes and logistical problems have caused the trial planning to move at a snail's pace.

A court transcript seen by The National show the methodical nature of the case. At least three depositions of foreign citizens will have to take place outside the US before the trial begins, according to the court transcript.

Though specifics are not disclosed, ways of potentially dealing with Mr Masud's health problems are also discussed. His court-appointed lawyers have promised to provide updates about his medical condition to better prevent any delays.

In court on Thursday, Judge Friedrich emphasised the need to stay on schedule. “I want this to be aggressive,” she said, referring to trial planning dates and schedule preparations.

Mr Masud's lawyer told the judge that although there is “some disagreement” about the extent of his medical problems, both defence and prosecutors are on the same page about how to deal with it going forward.

All 259 people on board the Pan Am flight died in the attack and 11 people were killed on the ground by falling debris on December 21, 1988, shortly after the plane took off from London bound for New York.

Of the victims, 190 were US citizens, along with people from the UK and Argentina, India, South Africa and Spain, among others.

[A report on the BBC News website contains the following:]

Kara Weipz is the president of the US group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and lost her 20-year-old brother Richard Monetti on the plane.

"I'm just going to pray that it stays at 20 April," she said. "I was 15 when this happened, and I'm 52 now and among the relatives I'm considered young.

"A lot of our family members are in their seventies and eighties and unfortunately, we lose them weekly or monthly now.

"The travesty in all of this that they're not seeing the justice that they've worked 37 years to see.

"That's what concerns us the most, that this trial will come around and we'll have lost more family members." (...)

Some, but not all, of the British relatives have never accepted the verdict against Megrahi, including the Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga was on the plane.

"I think they're just waiting for people like me to pop our clogs and get out of the way," he said.

"I'm still pretty cynical about the whole thing. I would like to be proved wrong but I can't see it happening.

"As far as I'm concerned, who made the bomb and who put in on the plane are secondary as to who were the main criminals.

"They were the group of people who had all the warnings that this was going to happen and warned their own people but didn't warn the public."

Masud trial: both sides experiencing difficulties in preparing

[What follows is excerpted from an item posted today on the Intel Today website:]

The trial of Abu Agila Masud, the Libyan intelligence official accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, is likely to be postponed until at least April 2026. The proposed delay — requested jointly by US prosecutors and defense attorneys — must still be approved by a federal judge.

According to court filings, the main reason for the delay is the extraordinary complexity of the case. Much of the evidence is scattered across multiple countries, requiring extensive international cooperation, logistical planning, and legal coordination. This has made it difficult for both sides to prepare adequately for trial. [RB: A status hearing in the case is scheduled to take place on 5 June 2025 at 11.00 in Washington DC District Court.]

A central piece of evidence is an alleged confession Masud made in 2012 while imprisoned in Libya. Defense attorneys argue that the statement was obtained under duress and may be inadmissible in a US court. Legal arguments over whether that confession can be used at trial are expected to be contentious and potentially pivotal.

While the delay may frustrate families of the 270 victims — many of whom have waited decades for justice — it reflects the high stakes and legal sensitivities surrounding the case. Trying an international terrorism case involving decades-old evidence is inherently difficult. Political instability in Libya, the patchwork of international legal systems, and the reliance on potentially coerced testimony all complicate efforts to ensure a fair and thorough trial.

Adding another layer of complexity is the scheduled 2026 declassification of technical documents related to the Lockerbie disaster. These materials, believed to include engineering and forensic analyses of the explosion and aircraft damage, were reclassified after previously being slated for release — an unusual and controversial move. (...)

[Their] importance is underscored by the shadow of former FBI explosives expert [Tom] Thurman, a key figure in the original Lockerbie investigation. Thurman played a central role in identifying key forensic links — but his credibility was later seriously questioned. In 1997, he was removed from active casework after internal investigations found he had overstepped his authority by claiming scientific conclusions without proper credentials or peer review.

Knowing what is now publicly documented about Thurman’s methods, defense lawyers are expected to examine the forthcoming technical documents with particular intensity, looking for flaws, gaps, or contradictions in the forensic conclusions that originally shaped the indictment and public narrative.

Whether the timing of the trial delay and the documents anticipated release is coincidental or strategic, the outcome could be significant. If these documents (if released as planned) were to contradict past findings — or reveals alternative interpretations — it could reshape the courtroom dynamics entirely.

Ultimately, this is not just a legal trial, but a test of forensic accountability. Ensuring the evidence can withstand modern scrutiny is not a delay of justice — it may be the only way to achieve it.

[RB: A report also now appears on the BBC News website.]

Lockerbie documents: genuine or created to focus blame on Gaddafi?

[What follows is excerpted from a report by Jack Dennison-Thompson published today on the Maghrebi.org website:]

Fresh allegations accusing Libya, once again, to be the architect of the Lockerbie bombing in 1998 have arisen, with the US quick to endorse their validity.

According to the BBC, Samir Shegwara, a Libyan writer and politician, has published documents in his new book Murderer Who Must Be Saved, which contains classified documents that he claims he took from the archives of Libya’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi after the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. No one, so far, not least the Americans nor the Libyans, have validated the documents and so question marks arise over whether they are genuine or have been created by those with vested interests in keeping the blame for Lockerbie firmly with Colonel Gadaffi.

The classified documents are claimed to have been dated October 4th 1988 with the handwritten report labelled as “top secret” alongside one of the files containing the subject matter “Experiments on the use of the suitcase and testing its effectiveness.”

The report later explains that the tests were effective in avoiding X-ray scanners ideal considering the Pan Am flight did not hand check the bags on the flight but rather just X-rayed them.

The report also details an agent by the name of Aboujila Kheir – believed to be Abu Agila Masud Kheir Al-Marimi – who was involved in the tests. More details are believed to involve the “expenses” of an agent who traveled to Malta days before the attack on Pan Am 103, despite the island effectively being the international base for all of Libya’s foreign intelligence operatives.

The documents reportedly implicate Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi’s brother-in-law, in planning both the Lockerbie bombing and UTA Flight 772 attack. Senussi was convicted in absentia for the UTA bombing in 1999 but never served his sentence. Scottish and American prosecutors later named him as a Lockerbie suspect in 2015.

Sami Shegwara was arrested on the 20th of March after the documents he released were seen as a national security risk. His publishers have come out and stated that Mr Shegwara is facing legal proceedings over the “alleged possession of classified security documents, without legal justification.”

The strange case around this arrest is that Shegwara who is the mayor of Hay al Andalous in Tripoli has openly shown his possession of these documents since 2018.

Some believe this shows that the document must be real for the arrest to take place yet it also calls into question why it would take seven years for such documents to become of such importance.

The documents have now been described by a former FBI agent as “dynamite” and will be used to prosecute Abu Agila Mas’id Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, who is accused of building the bomb for his trial in Washington.

While these new documents have surfaced and become “dynamite” evidence in the past month, the case of Lockerbie has been a whirlwind of truth and lies.

This is so much so that Nelson Mandela himself was sceptical to blame Libya.

Documents in the National Archive of the UK have shown that Nelson Mandela told the UK that it was wrong to hold Libya responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.

Mandela was acting as the intermediary for Libya and in a conversation with Tony Blair on April 30th 2001 “Mandela argued it was wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the bombing,” the cables revealed.

Mandela believed that the UN was wrong to impose economic sanctions on Libya after Al Megrahis’s extraction to the Netherlands for trial where he was convicted controversially. (...)

The unusual actions in this case echo a familiar pattern, as the US faces accusations of violating international laws to abduct a Libyan national, fuellng suspicions regarding Libyan involvement in the Pan Am attack.

This occurred in November of 2022 Libyan militiamen captured Abu Agila Mas’ud, accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. US agents took custody of the suspect in a controversial midnight raid in Tripoli. The operation highlights ongoing tensions surrounding the Lockerbie terrorist attack.

After decades of silence, the Lockerbie victims’ families have erupted in a rare public challenge, casting doubt on the US justice system’s ability to deliver a truly impartial trial.

Dr Swire who leads representations for the families who have lost loved ones in the attack and who lost his daughter himself believes the US has blurred the lines of this situation even more, with a UN trial being the more just prosecution.

“There are so many loose ends that hang from this dreadful case, largely emanating from America, that I think we should remember what (former president of South Africa Nelson) Mandela said to the world and to us then, and seek a court that is free of being beholden to any nation directly involved in the atrocity itself,” Swire told BBC Radio Scotland.

Their unprecedented call for a UN-led prosecution speaks volumes about the deep-seated suspicions surrounding America’s long-standing narrative of the terrorist attack.

Whilst Libya has been at the forefront for blame over the Lockerbie bombing, there are alternative theories which suggest Libya was not at the forefront for the bombing.

Many journalists support the opposing argument, suggesting that a bomb was planted on the plane at Heathrow Airport by a Syrian terrorist cell that was paid for by Iran.

Whether this theory of the attack is true or whether Libya is involved it appears that the bombardment of blame onto Libya which has been carried for 37 years feels unjust and excessive, to say the least.

The current investigations have begun with the new documents as the Scottish detectives have now been examining the new files to verify Libyans involvement, alongside the US trials still taking place.

After three decades, the case for Lockerbie seems to have a new lease of life rather, it appears it never really lost it as it has constantly been dug up by countless finger-pointing to Libya by the US and the West with no tangible evidence sticking.

These new documents could potentially reshape the understanding of the case. However, a lingering question remains: why are files that have existed for seven years now being presented as urgent and pivotal evidence?

Statement by family of Lockerbie accused Masud

[What follows is a translation of a statement issued in Arabic by the family of Abu Ajila Masud on 16 March. I am grateful to Susan McNarey for procuring the translation.]

TRANSLATION/ In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Tripoli – Saturday, 2025/03/16 – 23:20

Statement on behalf of the citizen Abu Ujaila Majid Masoud Khair Al-Marimi.

Hisham Abu Ujaila Al-Marimi speaks as a representative of the father and regarding the latest developments related to his arrest as he enters the third year of detention… and until this moment, confirming the following is important:

(1)

Everyone knows that he was handed over to the American government for free… without anything in return. We have been saying this since day one… There was no reason or justification for that… and it was only done because it was demanded from those who were required to act.

(2)

The source of the accusation against the father is the American government… it is based on physical coercion imposed on different (33) judges who made the conviction decision against their will.

(3)

The American government itself imposed the condition of a trial… and it is the same government that deliberately created a conviction-based equation. It suggested that he “agrees”… then after three years of detention, he was deprived of his constitutional and personal rights in an unimaginable manner.

(4)

It has become clear that the American government was working to include the father in a claim against his country and its citizens… without regard for the father’s free will and personal choice… and without considering his decision. Thus, this government worked to implicate him and falsely attach him to accusations.

(5)

The father insists on his innocence… which is not just a claim but something the American government itself is aware of… The father had no involvement in what he is accused of… and he was arrested in illegal detention centers… He never had anything to do with the Lockerbie plane case… neither was he a part of it, nor was he in his country at the time, nor was he connected to the heinous crime. 

(6)

In a loud voice… and in the presence of (3) out of (5) intensive American prosecutors in the case… and (12 days) before its date… he said he was ready for trial from day one… and that the American government did not confront him with any evidence of what they claim… and until now, it has not fulfilled its promise from the beginning of this month.

(7)

Our expectation today came true, as usual… with the unnatural solidarity and closeness between the prosecution and the defense before the court, which made a fatal mistake… and without setting a new date for the trial… meaning the trial will not take place at all. This has significant implications, including:

(i)

That the father faces a life sentence… without a court ruling… and without any accusation allowing a fair trial.

This solidarity between the defense and the prosecution in the postponement was against the father’s will… and not for any legitimate legal value or consideration of the consequences… The American government bears full responsibility for the father’s personal safety, considering the court’s decision to postpone.

(ii)

We emphasize that the father refused the final postponement… and with the expected results… and the absence of the legitimacy of his detention for even an hour across a third country, we demand the immediate release of the father and compensation for the harm he endured.

(iii)

Among all the constitutional and international violations of the American government, which were approved by the court, we affirm that these aggressive practices and the denial of a fair trial… and the court’s failure to prevent these impossible practices… reaffirm the impossibility of the accusations and the impossibility of conviction.

(8)

Furthermore, all the aggressive and unjust practices by the American government against the father… and this unjust postponement without determining a future trial date… reinforce our confidence that we were in the right position from the perspective of truth, justice, and history. We did not submit to anyone, nor did we wear what did not suit us… What befell us around (1000 days) ago was true… and with the acknowledgment of the American government.

(9)

Thus, with what has already been done in terms of (obstruction) and not merely a postponement of the trial… no argument remains for the wrongdoers or the prosecutors of the trial to continue supporting it.

A trial will certainly not take place… and they must take the correct stance on truth, justice, and history…

We continue to affirm that we have not and will not waver… and this message has reached and is clear to the American government. We extend our deep gratitude to those who have offered us support and solidarity… and we reiterate that there is no time for hesitation and no time for waiting—it will never come. The trial that the American government is pushing for requires action without hope in its timing… and praise be to God alone. Prayer and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet.

With sincere respect,

Hisham Abu Jameela Al-Marimi

US judge agrees to delay Lockerbie bombing trial

[What follows is excepted from a report published yesterday on the BBC News website:]

A US judge has agreed to delay the trial of a Libyan man accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie more than 36 years ago.

The case against Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was due to begin in Washington on 12 May, but has been postponed at the request of the prosecution and defence.

A new starting date for the trial has not been set but discussions are ongoing.

Masud has denied priming the explosive device which brought down the Boeing 747 on 21 December 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew.

Another 11 people died in the south of Scotland town when wreckage fell on their homes.

Masud, who is in his early 70s, is described as a joint citizen of Libya and Tunisia. He has been receiving treatment for a non-life threatening medical condition.

In submissions to the court, US government prosecutors referred to the complexity of the case and the time required to adequately prepare for pre-trial hearings.

The lawyers also raised the issue of "voluminous discovery, including evidence located in other countries" and the need for the defence to determine how best to defend Masud.

US district court judge Dabney Friedrich agreed to delay the 12 May starting date.

A status conference on the case is due to take place at the court next month.

Scottish and US prosecutors first named Masud as a suspect in 2015 when the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya breathed new life into the Lockerbie investigation.

Five years later, the then US attorney general William Barr announced they were charging Masud with the destruction of an aircraft resulting in death.

He was taken into American custody in 2022 after being removed from his Tripoli home by an armed militia.

A key pre-trial issue is likely to be the admissibility of a confession Masud is alleged to have made in prison in Libya in 2012.

According to the FBI, Masud said he had worked for the Libyan intelligence service and admitted building the device which brought down Pan Am Flight 103.

Lockerbie bombing’s lasting impact on a ‘normal little town’

[What follows is excerpted from a report by Libby Brooks published in today's edition of The Guardian:]

Eleven of the street’s residents died when the wing section of Pan Am 103 crashed into Sherwood Crescent with the force of a meteorite on 21 December 1988, gouging a 30ft crater on this spot. The impact was such that some bodies were never recovered.

This once anonymous street was recreated in meticulous detail for the filming of the Sky Atlantic series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, which was first screened last month and stars the Oscar winner Colin Firth as Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed when a bomb exploded on the Pan Am flight from London bound for New York.

Although the drama has been widely praised, some relatives of the 270 people who lost their lives in what remains the UK’s deadliest terrorist atrocity have questioned the need for such graphic depictions of the immediate aftermath. A spokesperson for the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 group described it as “tragedy porn” to the Hollywood news site Deadline, while closer to home a Lockerbie resident who lost her sister and brother-in-law wrote in the Annandale Herald: “I don’t need to be reminded about the terrible scene that night.”

But for a generation born after 1988, this series may be their first exposure to the tangle of legal proceedings, conspiracy theories and international controversy that has become synonymous with the name of one small town in the south of Scotland.

With a second dramatisation airing on BBC One and Netflix later this year, a new BBC Scotland documentary, and the trial of the alleged bomb-maker starting in the US in May, Lockerbie is likely to remain in the spotlight this year, willingly or otherwise.

“It’s the most normal little town in the world, with a strong community, and people are just living their lives,” says the Rev Frances Henderson, a minister at Lochmaben and Lockerbie Churches. “You don’t see the trauma until suddenly you do. It’s there, being carried and dealt with, a trauma that is part of their lives and has shaped the last decades.”

Henderson has not watched the Colin Firth series herself, “not because I object to it but because I feel I’d have to psyche myself up to it,” she says.

“I think most people feel it’s been done respectfully but neither have I heard of many watching it because it’s too real. For those who weren’t there, who may be too young to remember, it’s perhaps useful, but not for those who were there.”

The series was based on Swire’s investigations into the bombing. He and many supporters have argued consistently for the innocence of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer who was convicted in 2001 at a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands of 270 counts of murder.

Swire believes that Megrahi, who was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after a diagnosis of terminal cancer and died in 2011 in Tripoli, was framed to deflect attention from Iranian and Syrian responsibility. This is rejected as a conspiracy theory by US victims’ relatives, who felt the series misrepresented the trial and portrayed Megrahi as “an innocent man that should be empathised with”.

Swire and other UK relatives continue to demand a public inquiry into the failure to take seriously or make public warnings that an attack on a Pan Am flight was imminent, while in May another Libyan, 72-year-old Abu Agila Masud, will go on trial in Washington accused of building the bomb that brought down the flight. He denies all charges.

Colin Smyth, the Scottish Labour MSP for the region, said: “There has been so much written about the trial and various conspiracy theories, but no one has ever spoken to me about any of that as a constituent.

“People of Lockerbie didn’t choose for their town to be known for this, but they took their responsibility to the victims very seriously from the first night – like the couple who found a young man in their field and didn’t want to leave him so stood vigil until dawn, or the man who scooped up the body of a toddler and drove them into town so they weren’t left in the cold and wet.”

“For decades they have welcomed people with open arms as the families of the victims continue to visit their loved ones’ last resting place. Those relationships have sustained – you hear of relatives staying at family homes in Lockerbie even now.”

Those relationships are woven through the generations, thanks to the enduring scholarship programme between Lockerbie Academy and Syracuse University, New York, which lost 35 students in the disaster.

"All the Lockerbie evidence must be revealed"

[What follows is excerpted from a report in today's edition of The Times:]

The former justice secretary [Kenny MacAskill] said the public deserved answers from British and US intelligence services about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

The former SNP justice secretary has called for documents about the Lockerbie bombing held by the US and British intelligence services to be released.

Kenny MacAskill, who held the position from 2007 to 2014, said that he thought the public were entitled to know all the facts about the investigation.

“I think what we have to do is get the full documentation and information provided by the UK and USA. They have intelligence documents that they have refused to put out to the general public,” he told ITV Border.

“The Scottish government — certainly the Scottish government I served in — put everything that we were entitled to out there, but there are factors that the UK and USA know about and have not disclosed.” (...)

MacAskill, who became the Alba party’s acting leader after the death of Alex Salmond, released al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009 after his diagnosis with terminal cancer. Al-Megrahi died in 2012.

Prosecutors have maintained that al-Megrahi did not act alone.

Abu Agila Masud, a Tunisian-born Libyan citizen who is alleged to have helped make the bomb, is due to go on trial in the US in May this year.

The US announced three charges against Masud, which he denies, in 2020 and he has been in custody for two years.

Last year, the former justice secretary said he had “always believed” that Masud was the bomber.

The UK government has previously prevented the publication of secret documents which are believed to implicate Palestinian militants. (...)

MacAskill said: “We do know, for example, that Moussa Koussa, who was the foreign minister under Colonel Gaddafi, defected to Britain, where he was debriefed and then handed over to America.

“He is given the full works, if you could put it that way, and yet we have never been told what it was he said.

“I think what the public are entitled to is to have the full disclosure by the US and British intelligence but I do believe the investigation carried out was right.” (...)

[Christine] Grahame [MSP] brought [a members’ business] debate before Holyrood in response to a book released by Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the disaster, (...) subsequently turned into a drama starring Colin Firth.

In her speech, Grahame laid out the history of the case which put al-Megrahi — the only man convicted of the atrocity — behind bars, including some questions which remain, and called for a public inquiry into its handling.

Well-qualified commentators have pulled Megrahi's conviction apart

[What follows is excerpted from an article by Marcello Mega in The Sunday Times today. The published version may vary slightly from the text below:]

With a Libyan agent convicted in January 2001 of the Lockerbie bombing and another soon to be tried in the US, you might wonder why many relatives of the dead remain so fixated on seeking truth.

Dr Jim Swire has led the campaign, unconvinced by the evidence he heard at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands against two Libyans that saw one of them convicted of mass murder, and increasingly aware over the many years since of the hidden evidence that might have cleared both.

In the year ahead, two television dramas and the trial in Washington of Abu Agila Masud, accused of making the bomb that took 270 lives on 21 December 1988, will remind us that the full story is still unknown.

Sky’s Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, with Colin Firth playing Swire, will be first to reach the public, from 2 January.

The series is based on Swire’s book Lockerbie: A Father's Search for Justice, which points to many holes in the story accepted by the trial and highlights contradictory evidence that has emerged since.

Early on in the project, Firth requested a briefing because he sensed it could have a similar impact on the public as Mr Bates and the Post Office, which transformed understanding of the Post Office scandal.

Firth wanted to be certain any similar impact on understanding of Lockerbie would be justified. The briefing was arranged with experts who understood the case and Firth was happy to proceed.

Now 88 and having devoted 36 years to the quest for truth after his daughter Flora was murdered on the flight, Swire is weary and has signalled it might be time to put down his sword.

Having been promised and denied a full public inquiry by the Tory Government of the day and by the Labour Government that followed, he believes all documents held on the case should now be made public.

He holds out little hope, but believes the drama might animate the public, making the demand for truth harder to resist.

The 82-page judgment of Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield (now deceased) and Maclean is available online, double-spaced and not a difficult read.

Well-qualified commentators such as Gareth Peirce, who overturned the convictions of the Guildford Four, and Professor Robert Black, who devised the scheme for the Lockerbie trial in a neutral country, have pulled it apart.

The prosecution’s case started with an unaccompanied suitcase carrying a bomb being placed on Air Malta Flight KM180 from Luqa Airport to Frankfurt on 21 December 1988.

It was supposedly tagged to go on to Pan Am 103A to Heathrow and then to New York-bound Pan Am 103.

Swire, in common with many others, believes that a security breach not disclosed during the trial allowed the bomb to start its path at Heathrow where the plane was loaded from empty.

The judges, however, decided that an unaccompanied suitcase did travel on the Air Malta flight while recognising that not a shred of evidence supported it.

It might have been even harder to make that leap of faith had baggage handlers from Luqa been called as witnesses.

In their statements, they explained that not only did an unaccompanied bag not travel on the flight, it could not have happened because of the simple system they used.

They never knew how many passengers were booked on a flight, but physically counted the bags going on, then called the check-in desk to see if their counts matched. If not, the bags came off and the count restarted.

One or two of these witnesses could potentially have killed the Crown’s case at its inception, but they were never called.

In a highly complex case involving thousands of witness statements and tens of thousands of productions, Megrahi’s conviction came down to two essential matters: the testimony of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci and the identification of a fragment of circuit board said to have detonated the bomb as coming from a batch sold only to Libya.

The judges did not know until after the trial that Gauci’s evidence was tainted by the promise of reward money from the US.

Gauci, now dead, received $2m, and his brother Paul, who didn’t even testify, a further $1m.

The Scottish justice system has largely ignored the relevance of these rewards. The late Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, a Scottish clan chief who became one of England’s most senior judges, said if he had ever become aware of witnesses receiving rewards for evidence, he would have ordered the jury to discount it entirely.

Instead, the trial judges attached inexplicable weight to Gauci’s testimony. He never stated unequivocally that Megrahi bought the clothes from his shop that were placed in the case alongside the bomb.

Even in court, asked to make a simple dock identification, he qualified it by saying Megrahi resembled the man, as he had in all his statements, although his first description was of a man many years younger and several inches taller.

The judgment acknowledged his lack of certainty several times, but at the final mention the judges turned it into a virtue, suggesting it underlined his honesty. This measure of reliability cannot be found elsewhere in Scottish criminal law.

In addition, the judges stated without obvious reason that Gauci was “100% reliable”, on the list of clothing bought from his shop and the prices paid.

Yet in 1999, Gauci had produced an entirely different list from the first one while making a fresh statement in advance of the trial.

Like other evidence that did not suit the prosecution case it was not passed to the defence.

The judges also had to decide whether the clothing had been bought on 23 November, when Megrahi was not on the island, or 7 December, when he was.

They accepted that meteorological and other evidence suggested 23 November was more likely, but stated that they preferred 7 December, offering nothing of substance to support the decision.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said later that no reasonable court could have concluded the clothing was purchased on 7 December, a particularly damning view when no jury was involved.

Remarkably, the evidence around the circuit board is still unfolding. Of all the thousands of productions in the case, only one evidence bag, the one containing the fragment, had its label overwritten, fuelling a belief it had been planted.

Forensic tests after the trial showed no trace of explosives’ residue, so the fragment was unlikely to have been at the heart of a bomb. Later, metallurgical tests showed it actually came from a type of board put into production in 1989, adding to the suspicion of a plant.  

All three key forensic ‘experts’ in the case who testified on the fragment, two British and one American, have been completely discredited for malpractice in other murder cases.

Jim Swire has been my friend for more than 30 years. We once undertook an investigation to Sweden together to try to challenge Abu Talb, a man we believed was involved in the bombing.

His age is now against him taking similar bold steps to establish the truth, but the signature obstinance of this admirable man has never seemed perverse to me.

[RB: The present post differs somewhat in format from the norm in this blog. This is because the hardware and software on which I am having to rely in Ajman is not what I am accustomed to.]

The official version ... is absolute nonsense

[What follows is excerpted from a report published in The Sunday Times today:]

The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie remains the deadliest terrorist attack to have taken place in Britain. (...)

In all 270 people were murdered, among them Flora, the 23-year-old daughter of Dr Jim and Jane Swire. For Jim it was the start of a 35-year quest to find out who had killed her and why — a story that is being told in a five-part Sky drama starring Colin Firth as Swire.

A three-year investigation by the FBI and Scottish police led to the arrest of two Libyan men, one of whom, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was convicted of the attack in 2001. But after his trial it was revealed that the US government had paid millions to two central witnesses and some forensic evidence was discredited. Megrahi maintained his innocence until his death in 2012.

“An awful lot has been written about the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie disaster,” says Gareth Neame, Lockerbie’s executive producer. “But sometimes when you dramatise a story you bring a new perspective. We saw that, obviously, with the Post Office drama [Mr Bates vs the Post Office] — a story that had been bubbling under the headlines for years, a miscarriage of justice. Suddenly it captured people’s attention.”

Initially Swire accepted the American claim of Libyan responsibility for the bombing, but during the trial he began to have doubts. When Megrahi’s guilty verdict was read out, the doctor collapsed in disbelief, and went on to campaign for the Libyan’s retrial and release. He believes Megrahi was framed and that the bomb was planted by Iranians at Heathrow. (The US and UK governments maintain that the bomb originated in Malta, and was flown to Heathrow as part of a Libyan plot.)

Swire has been called a conspiracy theorist by some, but the drama supports his misgivings. Based on his book, Lockerbie: A Father’s Search for Justice, it has already been criticised by the American-based campaign group Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, who contend that the series will promote a “false narrative”. But its makers hope his story might become the Mr Bates vs the Post Office of 2025, generating enough public anger to prompt a closer examination of the many unanswered questions surrounding the attack.

Firth met Jim and Jane Swire a few weeks before the drama began shooting. “Jim Swire had not previously been someone with an innate distrust in institutions,” he tells me when I meet him on the courtroom set in Scotland where Megrahi’s trial is being restaged. “I’m not even sure he has that now. He simply wants to know what happened and why. He’s a rational man responding to facts as he sees them. I believe he would still be happy to be proved wrong if it meant knowing the truth.”

Firth tells me that Swire is plainly no crank. “This isn’t someone who has the kind of zealotry that makes them cling to a position no matter what. He has changed his position according to new information. He’s very, very alive to new facts, to new evidence. I think it takes quite a lot of courage to keep that up for nearly four decades, particularly when feelings are so strong. And I think a man like that is worth listening to.”

Jim Swire is 88. When we speak and I ask him how he is this morning he replies: “I’m ancient.” He peppers his conversation with references to his age and how little time he must have left. Yet when it comes to the details of the Lockerbie disaster, its ramifications and implications, he is tack-sharp.

He was, he says, “elated” on hearing that there was to be a dramatisation of his story. “Because it’s always seemed to me, throughout the past 36 years, that there is a yawning gap between the little bits that we could do as individual relatives of those who were slaughtered, and where the establishments of our country and America are on this issue. That gap is so horrendous that I know full well we have failed to bridge it. And now we need to bring it to the attention of other people who can make up their own minds about what happened.”

So what does he think happened? “The thing becomes simpler and simpler the more you know about it,” he says. “In July 1988 Iran had an Airbus with 290 innocent people on board shot down by a US missile cruiser in the Gulf. After that awful incident, instead of immediately saying, ‘Oh, I’m terribly sorry,’ America decided to award a medal to the captain of the ship and ribbons to the crew, and for a long time failed to pay any compensation to the poor families.”

Swire’s theory is that the Lockerbie bombing, which targeted a flight that was supposed to be full of Americans, was meant to be revenge (a warning had been issued to US diplomats not to book tickets home for Christmas on PanAm Flight 103, allowing Flora Swire, for one, to grab a late seat). (...)

Swire is a man steeped in British institutions. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers who ran the British garrison in Bermuda on the outbreak of the First World War. “He was a man of principle of whom I was deeply in awe,” Swire says. He was sent from the family home on Skye to board at Eton from the age of seven. He learnt esprit de corps during national service as a second lieutenant in Cyprus and Port Said, then read geology at Cambridge before retraining as a doctor and becoming a family GP.

But trying to get straight answers as to why his daughter died changed him. In 1991, in an early bid to get the Libyan suspects Megrahi and Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah handed over to face charges, he took matters into his own hands and travelled to Libya to meet Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in person.

This, Swire concedes, was reckless in the extreme. “Looking back, I can only blush at my own naivety. But by that stage I had had enough time to discover that what I was being told by the authorities in my own country was not true, essentially, and I was determined.”

His determination led him to make his own conclusions, based on scrupulous examination of the evidence, including fragments of a circuit board that linked the Libyans to the bombing, which Swire believes were planted by the FBI.

“What I discovered was horrendous, and I’ve been able to discover enough about the truth to know that the official version that you and I are being solemnly told, to this day, particularly by the Americans, but also by the UK authorities, is absolute nonsense.” Another alleged Libyan terrorist, Abu Agila Masud, was arrested in 2022 and is due to face trial in the US over the Lockerbie bombing next May.

Swire is very aware that not everyone agrees with his version of events. The drama shows how the American families in particular think he has been gulled by the Libyans, or vanished into a Bermuda Triangle of his own theorising. “In a post-truth situation people like me are branded by the authorities as conspiracy theorists, or whatever phrase you like to use — and the establishment is always assumed to be the upright, honest broker of truth. The American relatives, many of them, think I’m absolutely bananas.”

When I spoke to Firth, who had been given Swire’s shock of grey hair and wore his “The truth must be known” badge, he was at pains to point out that Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is not just a father’s story. It begins with the brutal actuality of what Swire calls “the slaughter”, and also follows Jane (a superb Catherine McCormack) and the rest of their family. “It’s very much about the cost to them as a couple and as a family. This isn’t just about the search for judicial truth — it’s not just a legal drama,” Firth says.

Does Firth think we will ever learn the truth about Lockerbie? “I don’t know,” he says. “But I am in awe of this man’s determination to pursue it.”

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is on Sky from Jan 2

Libyan Lockerbie suspect’s family urges international intervention

[This is the headline over a report published today on the website of Libya Review. It reads as follows:]

On Saturday, the family of Abu Ajila Masoud Al-Marimi, the Libyan intelligence officer accused of involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, called on international human rights organizations to intervene urgently, claiming he is being tortured and denied medical care while in US custody. They report that his health has deteriorated significantly and warn of the potential danger to his life.

Al-Marimi was extradited to the United States from Libya in December 2022, a move his family insists was illegal. They say they have been denied any contact or visitation since his transfer and are calling for legal and humanitarian guarantees to ensure his safety. The family is also demanding his immediate return to Libya, where they believe he would receive better care and a fairer legal process. [RB: Masud was not "extradited" to the USA: he was abducted by a Libyan warlord and sold to the US authorities: 

https://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2022/12/even-facade-of-legality-was-not.html]

Al-Marimi’s son revealed that evidence for the upcoming trial, set for May 12, 2025, in Washington DC, has already been submitted. However, he criticized the court for allowing families of Lockerbie victims to attend hearings via video link while denying the same access to Al-Marimi’s family. Al-Marimi, now 71, has consistently denied the allegations against him, declaring in court that he had no involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

This is not the first time the family has raised alarm over his treatment. In June, they reported that he had been hospitalized due to multiple chronic illnesses. His nephew, Abdel Moneim Al-Marimi, expressed concerns about his uncle appearing in court without proper legal representation, as promised financial support for his defense has not materialized. Despite securing a lawyer at their own expense, the family claims they have received little assistance or updates from Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU).

The 1988 Lockerbie bombing remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history, killing 270 people. Al-Marimi is accused of being involved in constructing the bomb used in the attack, based on claims that he made a confession to Libyan authorities.

His extradition has been widely criticized within Libya, with opponents arguing that it violated the country’s constitution and sovereignty. Protests erupted across Libya following his handover, with many accusing the GNU of yielding to foreign pressure.

The family’s renewed plea draws attention to Al-Marimi’s worsening health and alleged mistreatment, underscoring broader concerns about human rights violations and the legality of his transfer. They are calling on international organizations to investigate his case and intervene to ensure his basic rights are protected.

The case has further strained Libya’s fragile political climate, while in the US, it has reignited interest in securing accountability for the Lockerbie bombing. Al-Marimi’s family continues to assert his innocence, insisting that any alleged confession was coerced under duress.

Scots give their views on remote access to Masud trial

[What follows is excerpted from a report by David Cowan published today on the BBC News website:]

An international search by the FBI has identified more than 400 people from 10 countries who lost relatives in the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 or suffered emotional injury in its aftermath.

The US law enforcement agency tried to track down people directly affected by the atrocity in advance of a Libyan suspect's trial next year.

A federal court in Washington DC is deciding how to allow remote access to the case against alleged bombmaker Abu Agila Masud.

The 417 people who responded to the FBI survey included more than 100 people from Scotland, 32 of them from Lockerbie itself.

A total of 244 respondents came from the US and 164 from the UK.

Others came from the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Canada, Mozambique, Australia and Jamaica. (...)

In 2001, after a nine-month trial, a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands ruled that the bombing was the work of Libya's intelligence service.

Abdelbasset al-Megrahi was convicted of playing a key role in the plot and jailed for life, only to be freed on compassionate grounds in 2009 after falling terminally ill with cancer. He died in Libya three years later.

Abu Agila Masud was taken into US custody in 2022 and is due to stand trial in Washington DC next May, accused of making the bomb which destroyed the plane.

In advance of the trial, a group representing American relatives of the victims asked for remote access to the proceedings, saying that many of them were too old and infirm to travel to Washington DC for the case.

US lawmakers subsequently passed legislation to allow the relatives to get remote access "regardless of their location". [RB: The US legislation sadly makes no provision for Masud's family to enjoy remote acess to the trial. This is an omission that should be speedily rectified.]

To help the trial judge decide how that should be done, the FBI set out to identify and question two groups of people affected by the bombing.

The first included those who were “present at or near the scene in Lockerbie when the bombing occurred or immediately thereafter” and who suffered “direct or proximate harm (e.g. physical or emotional injury) as a result."

Many of the Scots who responded to the survey identified themselves as members of that group, including military personnel and rescue workers who took part in the operation to recover the bodies of the victims.

The second group involved “the spouse, legal guardian, parent, child, brother, sister, next of kin or other relative of someone who was killed on Pan Am 103 or killed or harmed on the ground in Scotland or someone who possesses a relationship of a similar significance to someone who was killed or harmed in the attack".

Most of the respondents told the FBI they would like video access via a weblink or app, allowing them to follow the trial from home. A slightly smaller number would also be content with audio-only access.

Masud's defence has suggested that people could watch the case at courthouses and embassies, but the US government argued that option was "logistically unreasonable, unfeasible, impractical and unworkable."

Instead, it is arguing that a "Zoom for Government" platform should be used, with access strictly controlled.

Participants would be told that recording or rebroadcasting the trial would be illegal. The software would include technology to identify anyone breaking the rules.

In a submission to the court, lawyers from the US Attorney's Office said: "These families have suffered for more than three decades.

"This attack was the largest terror attack on the US before September 11, 2001... it remains the single most deadly terror attack in UK history.

"The law passed by Congress applies only to this case.

"Given the death and destruction left by this bombing, and the palpable trauma and pain of the multiple victims spread globally throughout the world, one can only hope that another law like this one will never be needed again."

[The Times of 29 October picks up this story. Its report includes the following:]

Inspired by ITV’s series Mr Bates vs the Post Office, the actor Colin Firth is set to play a bereaved father in a new TV drama called Lockerbie. This has caused anger among victims’ families as the storyline puts forward a narrative that blames Iran for the attack.

Firth plays the part of John [sic] Swire, the father of Lockerbie victim Flora Swire.

Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, whose father Frank Ciulla died in the disaster, told the Mail on Sunday that complaints had been made already.

“We have raised our concerns with the producers,” she said. “We feel they are amplifying and highlighting a false narrative about the bombing, a narrative that the great majority of us who lost loved ones do not align with and have fought very hard against.”

Dedicated team of Scottish prosecutors and police support US in prosecution of Masud

[What follows is excerpted from a report headlined Lockerbie bombing widow urges victims to request virtual access to trial published today on the website of Shropshire Star:]

The widow of a passenger killed in the Lockerbie bombing has urged others affected to request virtual access to the forthcoming trial of a Libyan suspect.

The FBI is carrying out an international search for those affected by the atrocity, which killed all 259 passengers and crew onboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people on the ground when it exploded above the Scottish town in 1988.

The US Congress has passed legislation to make remote access to court proceedings available to victims in the trial of Abu Agila Masud, who is alleged to have helped make the bomb.

He is to go on trial in the US in May 2025 facing three charges, which he denies.

Victims say they have been told by the US Department of Justice that those affected have until October 9 to complete an online form requesting access to the trial.

The nose cone of the plane crashed into a field adjacent to the Tundergarth Kirk three miles east of Lockerbie and more than 100 bodies were found in the area.

Victoria Cummock is the widow of John Cummock, from Florida, who was one of the passengers found inside the nose cone.

Mrs Cumnock, a trustee of Tundergarth Kirks Trust and chief executive of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation, said: “I urge crime victims to use the FBI form to request virtual trial access via Zoom on our personal devices, which is the more humane, practical, and cost-efficient option.

“This allows ageing victims, like me, to remain in their supportive home environments and younger victims to continue to meet their work and family obligations, without creating unnecessary, daily travel hardships during a trial that could last at least a year.

“Many thousands of people qualify as living crime victims, like I do, and are entitled by US law to a range of support services during the trial, including mental health counselling, court trial access, and travel expense reimbursement.

“I appeal to everyone who qualifies to register to receive these benefits, regardless of whether they intend to access the court proceedings.

“This will probably be our last chance to be counted in demanding accountability and justice.” (...)

US law defines a victim in two ways, the first being anyone present at or near the scene in Lockerbie when the bombing occurred or immediately afterwards who suffered “direct or proximate harm (eg physical or emotional injury)”.

The other group comprises the spouse, legal guardian, parent, child, brother, sister, next of kin, or other relative of someone who was killed aboard the plane or killed or harmed on the ground, or someone who possesses a relationship of similar significance to them.

The FBI said it is collecting the information in an effort to inform the court about the widespread geographic locations of the victims, and to demonstrate how this may affect how they can access the trial proceedings in person.

A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokesperson said: “Scottish and US authorities have worked together since 1988 to bring those responsible for this atrocity to justice.

“That work continues as a dedicated team of Scottish prosecutors and officers from Police Scotland support the US Department of Justice and the FBI in the prosecution of Masud.

“While people of interest are still alive and there is evidence that can continue to be gathered, this investigation will not stop.”

Former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is so far the only man convicted in relation to the bombing. (...) 

The FBI form can be accessed at https://forms.fbi.gov/panam103victims/view 

FBI search for 'all Lockerbie victims' ahead of suspect's US trial

[This is the headline over a report by David Cowan that was published late yesterday on the BBC News website. It reads in part:]

The FBI has launched an international search for victims of the Lockerbie bombing, including people who suffered “emotional injury”, ahead of a Libyan suspect's trial in the US. (...)

Abu Agila Masud has denied making the device that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish Borders town on 21 December 1988.

A judge in the US federal court where the trial is taking place is considering whether to allow remote access for people directly affected by the case.

The FBI is now trying to find everyone who meets a legal definition of victims of the bombing and wants to watch the trial online. (...)

Abu Agila Masud is due to stand trial before a jury in Washington next May.

The search for people directly affected by the bombing is being undertaken by the FBI's counter terrorism division and the US Department of Justice.

The FBI says the Washington court wants a finalised list of individuals “who meet the statutory definition of victim and wish to have access to the court proceedings".

The court also wants to know their total number and geographic location before it decides how to proceed.

Legislation passed by the US Congress to pave the way for remote access to the trial defines a victim of Lockerbie in two ways.

It includes someone who was “present at or near the scene in Lockerbie when the bombing occurred or immediately thereafter” and who suffered “direct or proximate harm (e.g. physical or emotional injury) as a result".

The second group involves “the spouse, legal guardian, parent, child, brother, sister, next of kin or other relative of someone who was killed on Pan Am 103 or killed or harmed on the ground in Scotland or someone who possesses a relationship of a similar significance to someone who was killed or harmed in the attack".

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died on the plane, welcomed the decision to define people who witnessed what happened in Lockerbie as victims of the bombing, if they suffered harm.

He said: "Those affected by any disaster should never be restricted from access to the consequences of that disaster.

"So I think it's a good move that I entirely endorse."

[RB: No steps appear to have been taken to enable the family of the accused man to have remote access to the trial proceedings. This is a situation that should be speedily rectified.]