Judges reject bid for Lockerie appeal at the Supreme Court

The decision has been confirmed in a judgement issued by Lord Carloway

Author: Liam RossPublished 2nd Apr 2021

Scottish judges have rejected the latest bid to overturn the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber by having the examined at the UK Supreme Court.

The family of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi have been refused permission to clear his name at Britain's highest court.

However, it's understood his family will appeal directly to the Supreme Court.

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York on December 21 1988, killed 270 people in Britain's largest terrorist atrocity.

This latest decision has been confirmed in a judgement issued by Lord Carloway yesterday.

Written judgement

He said: "Although the case is clearly one of public importance, the proposed grounds of appeal do not raise points of law of general public importance.

"The principles of law which the court applied were all well known, settled and largely uncontroversial in the appeal.

"For these reasons, the court refuses permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court."

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was the only person convicted of the attack.

Alleged former Libyan intelligence officer Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.

Megrahi's first appeal against his conviction was refused by the High Court in 2002 and was referred back five years later following an SCCRC review.

He abandoned the second appeal in 2009, shortly before his release from prison on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer.

Megrahi returned to Libya and died in 2012.

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