New documents blame Libya for Lockerbie bombing

Scottish detectives are examining what is alleged to be the first written evidence from inside Libya's intelligence service that it murdered 270 people in the Lockerbie bombing 36 years ago. The newly revealed documents are said to provide further proof that Colonel Gaddafi's Jamahiriya Security Organisation (JSO), was also behind the destruction of a French airliner, killing another 170 victims. One former FBI agent described the material as potential "dynamite". If authenticated, American prosecutors are expected to use the documents during the Washington trial of Abu Agila Mas'id Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, who is accused of building the bomb. Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down on 21 December 1988, killing its 259 passengers and crew and another 11 residents in the Scottish town. Ten months later, a French airliner, UTA 772, crashed into the desert in Niger as it flew from Chad to Paris. Scottish and French courts have already convicted Libyan agents over both attacks but, if they are genuine, the newly revealed documents would bolster those convictions and could even lead to fresh prosecutions. The files have been published in a new book, The Murderer Who Must Be Saved, by French investigative journalists Karl Laske and Vincent Nouzille, and Libyan activist Samir Shegwara.<br/>