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| Lockerbie Memorial |
21st December 1988 was the day when Pan Am Flight 103 - a Boeing 747 en route from London Heathrow to New York - was destroyed by explosive devices which detonated as the aircraft, flying at Flight level 310 (31,000 ft) , approached the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. A great deal of information about this event may be read at Pan Am Flight 103 (Wikipedia). In all 270 people were killed: 243 passengers, 16 aircrew and 11 persons on the ground in Lockerbie.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident and published their report in 1990.
Subsequently, a trial was held at Camp Zeist, Holland. Scots criminal law applied. Two men were accused: Abdelbaset Al Mohmed Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. The trial was conducted by three Scottish judges (Lords Sutherland, Coulsfield and Maclean) and was heard without a jury. Al-Megrahi was convicted of murder. Al Fhimah was acquitted.
Al-Megrahi died in Tripoli on Sunday 20th May - The Guardian 21st May 2012 and it is reported that David Cameron has dismissed the possibility of a UK inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Earlier Law and Lawyers post - December 2011
Scottish Government: See the statement by Scotland's First Minister and also links to various materials connected to the return to Libya of al-Megrahi.
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