New call for Lockerbie inquiry as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi dies
by Auslan Cramb, telegraph.co.ukMay 20th 2012
Many of the families claim Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who was 60, would be posthumously cleared of any involvement in the worst terrorist attack in the UK. They want his appeal to be reopened and said any inquiry may have to be held outside Scotland, to avoid the "tentacles" of the prosecution service".
David Cameron on Sunday night rejected any such move, insisting there had been a "proper process". He added: "This has been thoroughly gone through. I'm very clear that the court case was properly done and properly dealt with."
The Prime Minister said Megrahi, who was sent back to Libya on August 20 2009, on the basis that he was dying of prostate cancer and had three months to live, should have served out his days in a Scottish prison. "I've always been clear he should never have been released from prison," he said.
"Today is a day to remember the 270 people who lost their lives in what was an appalling terrorist act. Our thoughts should be with them and their families for the suffering they've had."
News of Megrahi's death came from his brother Abdulhakim, who told a Libyan news agency he had been slipping in and out of a coma and died with his family around him yesterday morning. His funeral will be held at Tripoli's main cemetery today.
To the fury of American relations of victims, the Libyan returned home to a hero's welcome in 2009, after just eight years of his 27-year sentence.
A White House spokesman said yesterday that his death would not end the quest for justice for the families of the victims, but that it marked the end of an "unfortunate chapter following his release from prison in 2009 on medical grounds – a move we strongly opposed".
Megrahi was convicted of murdering 270 people, including 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, on December 21, 1988.
Critics claimed he that was freed after Tony Blair met Col Gaddafi in 2007 to discuss British oil deals with Libya.
Charles Schumer, a US Senator, on Sunday said that the Scottish Executive was wrong to allow him to "die a free man" after what "smelled of a deal for oil".
However, Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, insisted that Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds.
He said it was a day for "remembering the victims of the Lockerbie bombing", but added: "His death does, however, put to rest some of the conspiracy theories which have attempted to suggest that his illness was somehow manufactured."
While US families were convinced of Megrahi's guilt, many British relations concluded after the Lockerbie trial in 2001 that the wrong man was jailed.
Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter, Flora, said it was a sad day, and called for a comprehensive public inquiry.
He added: "I have been satisfied for some years that this man was nothing to do with the death of my daughter.
"Perhaps we can concentrate now on trying to find who did murder my daughter."
Dr Swire said Megrahi's family or the victims' families could ask for the appeal to be reopened, suggesting any inquiry may have to be held outside Scotland "because the tentacles of the Scottish prosecution service spread very wide".
Megrahi's brother yesterday insisted that he was a "scapegoat" for the old Libyan regime.
He told Agence France-Presse: "Everyone knows that the Gaddafi regime blamed its mistakes on others."
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