The Senate's foreign relations committee wants BP to answer claims about an oil deal based on the release, but the energy giant denies making any representations over the case. Mr Cameron asks the UK's top civil servant to review government papers, but rules out US demands for an inquiry. Meanwhile, the Scottish government denies BP influenced the release. Scottish ministers and officials turn down a request to attend the US Senate hearing. BP chief executive Tony Hayward also turns down a similar request.
Senators want to examine claims BP may have lobbied for the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. The US Senate hearing is postponed after key witnesses decline to take part, prompting Senator Robert Menendez to accuse them of "stonewalling". Almost a year after his release, Kenny MacAskill tells BBC Scotland he stands by his decision to release Megrahi, saying it was not based on "political, economic or diplomatic considerations".
The father of a victim of the Lockerbie bombing goes to Libya to visit Megrahi. Dr Jim Swire spends about an hour with him in a Tripoli hospital. He believes Megrahi is innocent and wants a full inquiry. Dr Swire lost his year-old daughter, Flora, in the bombing of Pan AM flight over Lockerbie, which claimed lives. Scotland's leading Roman Catholic backs calls for an independent inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien said "global accusations of wrongful conviction" must be dealt with. The Scottish government dismisses claims that the family of the Lockerbie bomber is to sue, alleging he was neglected in jail. Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi said relatives of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi would seek compensation after he died. The claim is reported to have been made via video link to staff and students at the London School of Economics.
The previous UK government did "all it could" to help facilitate the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a report on the case says. Sir Gus O'Donnell, the country's most senior civil servant, said there was an "underlying desire" to see Megrahi released before he died. But his report concludes that it was made clear to Libya that the final decision was up to Scottish ministers. And he said there was no evidence of Labour pressure on the Holyrood government.
Relatives of victims of the Lockerbie bombing ask their lawyers to request a meeting with Libyan defector Moussa Koussa. He is thought to have been a senior figure in the Libyan intelligence service when Pan Am flight was blown up over Lockerbie in The man convicted of blowing up a plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in appears at a rally broadcast by Libyan state television.
Introducing him at a televised rally of members of Megrahi's tribe, the presenter says Megrahi's conviction was the result of a conspiracy. Robert Halfon said he should be reimprisoned, preferably in Scotland. He was speaking after forces opposed to the rule of Col Muammar Gaddafi took control of most of Libya's capital.
The FBI put the two men on its 10 Most Wanted fugitives list -- the only time officers of a foreign government have ever been so named, spokesman Ken Hoffman said. Two years later, Libya floated the idea of trying the men in an international court, which the United States and Britain rejected.
Libya made a new proposal in summer that the men go on trial in the Netherlands, albeit under Scottish law. By the end of that year, matters came to a head when then U. Ten days later, a U. Appeals Court ruled that families of Americans killed in the bombing could sue Libya for possibly sponsoring the attack.
They were handed over April 5, , to the United Nations, which suspended its sanctions the same day. Two months later, U. After a nine-month trial, al Megrahi was convicted in of the murders after prosecutors dropped lesser charges. He was sentenced to life in prison, having to serve a minimum of 27 years.
Scotland does not allow the death penalty. In June , the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission allowed one appeal to go forward, ruling it uncovered new evidence and that al Megrahi "may have suffered a miscarriage of justice. Before that appeal was heard, however, it emerged al Megrahi had terminal prostate cancer.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who had authority over the case because the convicted bomber was jailed in Scotland, ordered him freed in August Some family members of Lockerbie victims swiftly complained that, with the legal process ending after al Megrahi dropped his appeal, they'd never know the full truth.
British press, meanwhile, alleged the release was tied to oil deals with Libya. British and Scottish officials denied that claim, making public more than pages of previously secret documents to make their case. The papers included a handwritten letter from al Megrahi to MacAskill, pleading that he be allowed to see his family before he died, and continuing to proclaim his innocence. The documents also showed that senior Libyan officials warned their Scottish and British counterparts it would be "catastrophic" for British-Libyan relations if al Megrahi died in prison.
Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam, Gadhafi's son and heir apparent who accompanied al Megrahi back to Libya on August 20, , said Libya was "very angry" at British efforts to keep al Megrahi out of a separate prisoner transfer agreement. Despite sparking international controversy, and a vote symbolically rejecting the decision in the Scottish Parliament, Megrahi's release from prison appeared to have had no effect on the SNP's fortunes.
The party, with Mr MacAskill, was returned to power at Holyrood in a landslide victory in May last year. Martin Cadman, from Norfolk, whose son Bill died in the flight at the age of 32, said: "The only thing I am interested in is getting to the truth.
The Americans know far more than they have said. JFM, which represents victims' families who are sceptical over Megrahi's responsibility for the bombing, has called for the appeal against his conviction to be reopened. Megrahi abandoned his appeal shortly before his release on compassionate grounds, despite the fact that he was under no legal compulsion to do so. Mr MacAskill strongly denied claims in a book co-authored by Megrahi that he urged the Libyan to drop the appeal to smooth the way for his compassionate release.
In the book, Megrahi claimed he was passed a message by Mr MacAskill that "it would be easier to grant compassionate release if I dropped my appeal". Mr Swire recently told MSPs that the victims' families could push for the appeal to be reopened after Megrahi's death.
Speaking in February, Dr Swire said: "The professional advice that I have received is that it would be perfectly possible for other individuals affected by the case to approach the SCCRC Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to request that a further appeal be granted. He said: "I would be very happy for that to happen. A lot of evidence pointed to the fact that the Americans knew that the attack was coming.
They needed someone to blame and the finger fell on Megrahi, but I think he is innocent. I don't believe it was the work of one man alone. Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said: "Megrahi was convicted by a Scots court, under Scots law, of the greatest act of mass murder in Scottish history.
That was an insult to the victims. Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie said: "Although this is an end to a chapter of one of the worst terrorist events in Scotland there should be no celebration that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has died. JFM secretary Robert Forrester said Megrahi's eldest daughter Gadha, who studied law in Scotland, has often signalled her intention to push for the appeal to be reopened after her father's death. In the event that she declines, Mr Forrester said Dr Swire and other sceptical families would be likely to do so.
However, he accused the SNP administration at Holyrood of actively obstructing efforts to shed light on the Lockerbie affair.
0コメント