Lockerbie bomb probe 'still open'

Mar 1 2013

Britain has insisted the investigation into the 1988 Lockerbie bombing remains open, despite reports the new Libyan government regarded the inquiry as over.

The Foreign Office disclosed that members of the Lockerbie investigation team, including officers from Dumfries and Galloway Police, had visited the north African state this week.

The Libyan justice minister, Salah al-Marghani, was earlier quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying the case had been "settled" with the former Gaddafi regime which paid £1.4 billion to the families of victims in 2003.

"I am trying to work on the current situation rather than dig into the past," he was quoted as saying.

But in a statement on Friday, the Foreign Office said that it expected a follow-up to the investigation team's visit "very soon".

"The Lockerbie investigation team, including Dumfries and Galloway Police, were able to visit Tripoli earlier this week, after the Government helped to secure visas for them," said the statement.

"They held initial discussions with Libyan ministers and senior officials on future cooperation on the Lockerbie case and we expect to see follow-up on this visit very soon. The investigation into the Lockerbie case remains open and the Government continues to discuss cooperation on this case with the Libyan government."

The Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, is the only person to have been convicted of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland in which 270 people were killed.

Megrahi, who was released from jail by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, died last year still protesting his innocence.

Since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, British investigators have been working to establish if there are other individuals in Libya who could be brought to trial for their involvement in the attack.