Scotland hunts other Lockerbie bomb plotters

LONDON?? Scottish prosecutors have contacted Libya's interim rulers for help in tracking down information which could lead to others being charged over the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland.

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"In particular we have asked the NTC (National Transitional Council) to make available to the Crown any documentary evidence and witnesses which could assist in the ongoing inquiries," a spokeswoman for the Scottish Crown Office said.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent who was convicted of the bombing which killed 270 people, was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, but the Crown Office said his trial court had accepted he had not acted alone.

'Did not act alone'
"The trial court accepted that Mr. Megrahi acted in furtherance of the Libyan intelligence services in an act of state sponsored terrorism and did not act alone," a Crown Office spokesman said, according to BBC News.

"Lockerbie remains an open inquiry concerning the involvement of others with Mr. Megrahi in the murder of 270 people," he added. "The Crown will continue to pursue lines of inquiry that become available and following recent events in Libya has asked the National Transitional Council, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for assistance with the investigation."

Video: Pan Am 103: From the archives (on this page)

The spokesman said that it was not "appropriate" to comment further because the investigation "remains live."

Libya's country's transitional justice minister, however, told reporters on Monday "the case is closed." Mohammed al-Alagi said there was no reason to keep dragging the case into court.

Megrahi's co-accused at the specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands in 2000 was Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who was cleared of mass murder.

He told Sweden's Expressen newspaper last month that deposed leader Moammar Gadhafi should be tried in court over suspicions he ordered the bombing.

"There is a court and he is the one to explain whether he is innocent or not," Fhimah said. "He has to."

In March, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Libya's former justice minister and now its interim leader, said he had evidence of Gadhafi's involvement in the bombing.

Last week, the U.S. ambassador to Libya returned to Tripoli to lead a newly reopened American Embassy in a post-Gadhafi era.

Video: Manhunt for Gadhafi continues (on this page)

Ambassador Gene Cretz was nominated to be the first U.S. ambassador to Libya in 36 years by President George W. Bush in July 2007 after a remarkable turnaround in U.S. relations with the North African nation.

The seismic shift in ties followed Gadhafi's payment of compensation to the families of victims of 1980s terror attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. The dictator also renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

That relationship evaporated amid the popular uprising against Gadhafi's regime this year, with U.S. and other NATO planes intervening to protect civilians from attacks by his forces.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44667192/ns/world_news-europe/

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