Libyan convicted of Lockerbie bombing, co-accused goes free

Jim Swire, who lost his student daughter in the suitcase bombing of the Pan Am jumbo jet, collapsed after the verdict was issued by presiding judge Lord Sutherland.

Relatives of the victims, including many who had flown in at short notice from the United States, gasped then broke into sobs, holding each other. They had waited 10 years to see the Libyans handed over for trial, and two more years for a verdict.

A spokesman for American families said the conviction of Megrahi, said to be a member of the Libyan intelligence service, pointed directly to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as the author of one of the worst terrorist outrages of modern times.

Megrahi’s lawyer said his client maintained his innocence. State-run Libyan television reported that he would launch an appeal, and Libya’s UN envoy told CNN that Libya "had nothing to do with this tragedy at all."

In a unanimous verdict, three Scottish judges found Megrahi, 49, guilty of planting the bomb aboard a flight in Malta which connected via Frankfurt with Pan Am’s London-to-New York flight.

The judges were also unanimous in acquitting co-accused Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima of causing the explosion, which destroyed the Boeing 747 at cruising altitude over Lockerbie.

It killed all 259 aboard and 11 people in the town.

"In view of the verdict of the court, you are now discharged and free to go," Lord Sutherland told Fahima, who immediately left the courtroom.

Judges adjourned proceedings until 1300 GMT when they would return to pass sentence, but life imprisonment is mandatory for murder in the Scottish law governing the nine-month trial.

"He maintains his innocence, so there is nothing I can say by way of mitigation," said Megrahi’s Scottish defence lawyer Bill Taylor.

The verdict took less than five minutes to announce.

Megrahi and Fahima sat side by side in the dock as they have done for the past 85 sessions. They were dressed in traditional white robes, Fahima in a dark fez and Megrahi a white one.

They did not look at each other. Megrahi slumped deeper in his chair as Sutherland pronounced the word "guilty". Fahima wiped his face with his hand when his "not guilty" verdict came.

Before the judges retired to consider the recommendation for a minimum sentence, chief prosecutor Colin Boyd reminded the court of the enormity of the crime.

"Four hundred parents lost a child, 46 parents lost their only child, 65 women were widowed, 11 men lost their wives, 140 lost a parent, seven lost both parents," he said.

"They are also victims of the Lockerbie bombing."

Although Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan government was not indicted for the crimes, Megrahi was identified by the prosecution as a member of the Libyan state intelligence agency.