News In Focus
28 April 2009
Lockerbie bomber begins second appeal
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, is to begin a second appeal against his conviction for blowing up a Pan Am flight 21 years ago.
Lawyers for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, claim judges at his trial heard insufficient evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt.
The appeal will start with an overview of the different arguments, including the Crown's failure to disclose certain key statements.
The hearing before the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, is due to sit for four weeks at a time with a month's break in between.
Megrahi has already lost one appeal, which was heard in a special Scottish court in the Netherlands a year after his conviction in January 2001.
Since then he has been in prison in Scotland, and must remain in jail until at least 2026.
In 2007, after a four-year investigation, a second appeal was recommended by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which said his conviction "may be unsafe".
Currently he is held in Greenock Prison, where he has been diagnosed as suffering from terminal prostate cancer.
In October 2008, appeal court judges rejected his plea to be released from jail on compassionate grounds.