Lockerbie bomber wins appeal bid

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Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi can take his case to appeal judges for a second time, a review body ruled.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) said there were six grounds - some put forward by the defence, and others resulting from its own investigations - where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

Commission chairman the Very Rev Dr Graham Forbes said: "Some of what we have discovered may imply innocence, some of what we have discovered may imply guilt. However, such matters are for a court to decide."

The case will now go before five appeal judges, at a sitting likely to take place in Edinburgh next year.

Relatives of Lockerbie victims welcomed the decision, saying they believed he was probably innocent on the evidence presented at his trial.

Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was one of the victims, said in Edinburgh: "It's no good trying to have closure on false foundations if they are false. A house built on sand cannot stand."

Al Megrahi, 55, was convicted in 2001 of killing 2007 people in the Lockerbie bombing and jailed for life. But a co-accused was found not guilty by the special Scottish court sitting at Camp Zeist in The Netherlands.

Al Megrahi, serving a life sentence at Greenock jail, welcomed the the SCCRC decision. In a statement issued through solicitor Tony Kelly he said: "To the relatives of those many people who died on 21st December 1988 I can say very little that will not sound insensitive.

"What I would like to reiterate, however, is that their cause is in no way served by the incarceration of an innocent man. Like them, I wish the whole truth about Pan Am 103 to be exposed."