Decision expected on Lockerbie bomber appeal
It is due to be published at noon on Friday 15th January 2021.
A decision will be published today on whether or not the Lockerbie bomber's conviction should be overturned.
The Scottish Appeal Court has been deliberating the third appeal on behalf of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
He was the only person convicted of the attack on December 21st 1988. The bombing of Pan Am flight 103, travelling from London to New York, killed 270 people when it exploded over the Dumfries and Galloway town.
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.
In a statement issued at the start of his posthumous appeal, lawyer Aamer Anwar, who represents his family, said: "It has been a long journey in the pursuit for truth and justice.
"When Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie nearly 32 years ago, killing 270 people from 21 countries, it remains the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed in the UK.
"Since then the case of Abdelbasset Al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted of the crime, has been described as the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.''
"The reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system has suffered internationally because of widespread doubts about the conviction of Mr Al-Megrahi.
"It is in the interests of justice that these doubts can be addressed; however, he was convicted in a Scottish court of law and that is the only appropriate place for his guilt or innocence to be determined.''
The appeal has the support of some family members of the victims including John Mosey and Jim Swire, who both lost their daughters in the attack.
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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