Lockerbie relatives welcome Libyan inquiry offer

Libya’s interim justice minister has said he would work with Scottish authorities investigating the Lockerbie bombing to help them to bring to justice all those involved in the atrocity.

Mohammed al-Alagi said he would co-operate with prosecutors from Scotland trying to find out who else, other than Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, carried out Britain’s biggest mass murder.

His remark at a news conference last night was an about-turn from the position he took earlier this week, when he said the case was closed.

The change of tack was given a cautious welcome by those who lost loved ones as a result of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, which killed 270 people in 1988. It was also welcomed by the Scottish Government.

The Crown Office has asked Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) for access to papers or witnesses that could implicate more suspects in the terrorist attack, including the deposed Libyan leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Asked about this request from the Scottish prosecuting authorities, Mr Alagi said: “I’d like to confirm that we are accepting any facts that might arise in this regard, if there is any suspicion about any other person.”

Speaking through an interpreter, he added: “We will co-operate in this regard with whoever has any other facts, according to international treaties.”

The comments represented a volte-face from his position on Monday, when Mr Alagi was reported to have emphatically said: “The case is closed.”

Police have submitted a list of eight other suspects they want to interview in connection with the bomb. Col Gaddafi had refused to allow those eight people to be questioned when he was Libyan leader.

The Crown Office also wants to pursue more evidence against Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who originally stood trial alongside Megrahi, but was cleared of mass murder.

Additionally, Libya’s former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who now serves as its interim leader, has claimed he had evidence of Col Gaddafi’s involvement in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

Last night, Frank Duggan, a Washington lawyer representing the relatives of United States victims, said the change of tune was encouraging.

“We are very pleased that Mr al-Alagi has said that,” Mr Duggan said. “We have really been getting some mixed signals about this over the last few days. We have always believed that other people were involved and would be very interested in any new information.”

Jim Swire, the British GP who lost his daughter Flora in the atrocity, also gave the news a cautious welcome last night.

Dr Swire said: “We are always looking after the truth, and if any more truth comes out of the wreckage of Libya, then we would certainly welcome that.

“But I would sound a note of caution,” he added. “I would hope that the interim government in Libya will be a reasonable entity, but it is still very early days.

“We are still looking through the fog of war, and we have to be very careful of claims that people are making at the moment and they probably need very careful vetting.”

Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted of the bombing in 2001 and is the only person to have been brought to justice in connection with the 1988 bombing.

He was convicted in a Scottish court, specially convened in the Netherlands, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In the summer of 2009, however, he was released on compassionate grounds after it was found he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He was freed by SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill on the basis that he had only three months to live.

Megrahi, however, is still alive more than two years after he arrived back in Libya to a hero’s welcome. It is believed he remains in Tripoli, where the jubilant scenes that greeted his arrival angered relatives of the American victims.

There are some, however, who believe Megrahi has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Mr al-Alagi is one of those who believes in his innocence.

The interim justice minister said he welcomed the possibility of an investigation into the possibility of others’ culpability, because “this will lead to the acquittal of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has been unjustly convicted in this case”.

Last night, a Crown Office spokesman said: “The trial court accepted that Mr Megrahi acted in furtherance of the Libyan intelligence services in an act of state-sponsored terrorism and did not act alone. Lockerbie remains an open inquiry concerning the involvement of others with Mr Megrahi in the murder of 270 people.”

The spokesman went on: “The Crown will continue to pursue lines of inquiry that become available, and following recent events in Libya has asked the National Transitional Council, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for assistance with the investigation.

“In particular, we have asked the NTC to make available to the Crown any documentary evidence and witnesses, which could assist in the inquiries.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We welcome this confirmation from the Libyan authorities that the Lockerbie case remains open from their perspective.”