Relatives of people killed in the Lockerbie bombing today welcomed news that there could be a fresh investigation into the atrocity.
Families of British victims have been advised that police are following several new lines of inquiry, including a review of forensic evidence into the 1988 bombing.
A total of 270 people were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the town of Lockerbie on December 21st.
It is understood that the Crown Office in Scotland has contacted relatives via e-mail informing them of the plans for a new investigation.
The Sunday Telegraphhas reported that Lindsey Miller, a senior procurator fiscal who was involved in preparing evidence for Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi's trial, has written: "Throughout the investigation we have, at various times, taken stock of the evidence as a whole with a view to identifying further lines of inquiry that can be pursued.
“Now that the appeal proceedings are at an end a further review of the case is under way and several potential lines of inquiry, both through a ‘desktop’ (paper) exercise and consultation with forensic science colleagues are being considered.
“You will of course appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to elaborate on these lines but please be assured that this is not simply paying lip service to the idea of an ‘open case’.”
Pamela Dix, who lost her brother Peter in the 1988 bombing, said: “As far as we understand it there are avenues which are being pursued, and I think that should be interpreted as a good thing.
“Expectations around Megrahi’s appeal were really quite high but hopes were profoundly dashed when the appeal was abandoned.
“The situation is unresolved and it is unfinished business.”
Megrahi, the only man to be convicted of the bombing, was released on compassionate grounds from Greenock Prison in August.
The release of Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, led to a storm of protest from American relatives of Lockerbie victims.
The decision to free him and allow him to return home to Libya was taken by Kenny MacAskill, Justice Secretary in the minority SNP administration in Edinburgh.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that Det Ch Insp Michael Dalgleish, who was part of the original team that brought the case against Megrahi, is heading the investigation.
Four detectives from Dumfries and Galloway Police are understood to be working on the case full-time.
Megrahi (57) a former Libyan intelligence officer, has always maintained that he had nothing to do with the bombing of Flight 103 from Heathrow to New York.
After being declared one of the two chief suspects behind the bombing by the British government in 1991, Megrahi spent nearly 10 years on the FBI’s Most wanted list.
He finally handed himself in to the United Nations in April 1999, saying he was willing to stand trial in a neutral country.
He was convicted of the mass murder in 2001 before a panel of Scottish judges at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands and told he would spend a minimum of 27 years in prison before being considered for parole.
He twice appealed against his conviction, arguing the guilty verdict had been a miscarriage of justice — finally dropping his second appeal.
He was linked to the bombing by fragments of clothing that were found wrapped around the remnants of the Lockerbie bomb.
But his decision to drop his appeal left British families, many of whom are sceptical about his guilt, fearing that new information that should have been made public would remain secret.
PA
