On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed over the town of Lockerbie in southern Scotland. The court that later tried the case stated the toll as 270 people: 259 on board the aircraft and 11 residents of Lockerbie.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was convicted of murder on January 31, 2001 by a Scottish court that sat in the Netherlands. He was a Libyan intelligence official, and in the statement the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary made to the House of Commons the same day he was described as "an official of the Libyan intelligence service". He was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2009 he was released on compassionate grounds, and he died in Tripoli on May 20, 2012. A posthumous appeal, brought by his family after a review by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, was refused by five judges of the High Court of Justiciary on January 15, 2021.
Megrahi was born on April 1, 1952 in Tripoli, Libya. He was a Libyan intelligence agent, and he was the only person convicted over the destruction of Pan Am Flight 103.
Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie on that date. The 270 dead included 259 people on board the aircraft and eleven residents of the town, as the court stated in its opinion.
The two accused were Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. On April 5, 1999, the two men traveled to the Netherlands, where Scottish police officers arrested them.
The indictment covered conspiracy to murder, murder and a contravention of the Aviation Security Act 1982. At the close of the Crown's submissions, the court recorded that "the libel was restricted to the charge of murder".
The court was made up of three Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands at Camp Zeist. There was no jury. The trial opened on May 3, 2000, and the parties closed their cases on January 8, 2001.
The verdict was delivered on January 31, 2001. The court unanimously found Megrahi guilty. In the words of the opinion, "we find him guilty of the remaining charge in the Indictment as amended". Of the second accused the court said that he "falls to be acquitted"; he was therefore found not guilty.
Megrahi was sentenced to life imprisonment, backdated to April 5, 1999. On November 24, 2003, at a hearing of the High Court of Justiciary in Glasgow, the punishment part of the sentence was set at 27 years, again counted from April 5, 1999. The Lord Advocate lodged an appeal against that figure on December 18, 2003.
The Foreign Secretary's statement to Parliament on the day of the verdict said that the full sentence would be served in a Scottish prison, and that no arrangement would be made with Libya on the sentence.
Megrahi appealed against his conviction. A five-judge bench refused the appeal on several grounds, and its opinion was issued on March 14, 2002.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case to the Appeal Court on June 28, 2007. That referral opened a second appeal.
On August 18, 2009, Megrahi, with the court's leave, abandoned that appeal. The court issued no judgment on the arguments. The abandonment cleared the way for an application to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya, which could not go forward while an appeal was pending.
On August 20, 2009, the Scottish Justice Secretary announced his decision that Megrahi be released on compassionate grounds, and he returned to Libya the same day. He had served about eight years of the life sentence. The release drew strong reaction from relatives of those who died.
Megrahi died in Tripoli on May 20, 2012. He maintained to the end that he was innocent of the offense for which he had been convicted.
On March 11, 2020, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the case to the High Court again. The Commission accepted two grounds as arguable: that the identification evidence given by a witness in Malta was insufficient for a reasonable court to accept, and that the Crown had failed to disclose a statement and a police report about the witness's possession of photographs of Megrahi before the identification procedure, and information about reward money paid to the witness. The Commission treated Megrahi's 2009 abandonment of his earlier appeal as no reason to refuse a second review. Other lines of argument put to the Commission were not referred.
The appeal was heard by five judges of the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary, and on January 15, 2021 they refused it. The court's summary of its decision says that "a bench of five judges has refused a posthumous appeal against the conviction of Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi". On the first ground, the court held that the central question at trial was whether Megrahi had taken part in the offense, and that the identification by the witness was "one of several elements in that proof". On the second ground, it found that the undisclosed identification material gave no basis for objection beyond what the defense had already been able to argue, and that the question about late-disclosed intelligence cables became "academic" once the court rejected the evidence of one Crown witness on that point.
The family applied to the United Kingdom Supreme Court for permission to appeal, and the Supreme Court refused it. The family's solicitor said, in July 2022, that "this is not the end of the matter", and that the case would be taken back to the Commission.
On December 12, 2022, the United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment, returned on November 29, 2022 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, against a former Libyan intelligence operative. He is charged with destruction of an aircraft resulting in death, and with destruction of a vehicle used in foreign commerce resulting in death. He has not been tried. A trial set for August 2026 was postponed; in September 2026 the judge was considering January 19, 2027 for the start of jury selection. An indictment is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent.
Megrahi denied the offense throughout. The 2021 appeal tested two matters: the identification evidence of a witness, and the disclosure of certain documents by the Crown. The court rejected both. It held that the identification was one element among several, and that the material not disclosed would not have given the defense grounds beyond those it already had. The 2020 referral also records matters the Commission looked at and decided not to refer. No court has set aside the 2001 verdict.
December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 is destroyed over Lockerbie; 270 people die.
April 5, 1999: Megrahi and a co-accused travel to the Netherlands and are arrested by Scottish police officers.
May 3, 2000: Trial opens at Camp Zeist.
January 31, 2001: Megrahi is found guilty; the second accused is acquitted. Life sentence.
March 14, 2002: Appeal refused.
November 24, 2003: Punishment part set at 27 years.
June 28, 2007: Commission refers the case to the Appeal Court.
August 18, 2009: Second appeal abandoned.
August 20, 2009: Released on compassionate grounds.
May 20, 2012: Dies in Tripoli.
March 11, 2020: Second Commission referral.
January 15, 2021: Posthumous appeal refused.
July 2022: Family says it will return to the Commission after the Supreme Court refuses permission.
December 12, 2022: United States indictment against another man unsealed.