The Local reports: (Original Swedish report in Expressen is here)
Photo: Scanpix (file)
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi ordered the 1988 terror attack that downed a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland, the Libyan leader’s former justice minister told a Swedish reporter on Wednesday.
“I have evidence that Qaddafi gave the orders for Lockerbie,” Mustafa Abdel-Jalil told a reporter for Swedish tabloid Expressen who is currently stationed in Libya.
Until Monday, Abdel-Jalil served as minister of justice to Qaddafi, but resigned in protest “over the excessive use of violence against government protesters” he is quoted as telling the privately-owned Quryna newspaper.
According to Abdel-Jalil, his former boss gave the orders to carry out the Lockerbie bombing, which claimed the lives of 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103 as well 11 people in the Scottish village below.
Among those killed in the bombing was Swedish diplomat Bernt Carlsson, who was serving in the United Nations at the time.
Following a lengthy probe involving Scotland Yard and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as other agencies, investigators concluded that the bomb had been placed on the plane by two Libyan nationals working for the country’s intelligence services.
In 1991, charges were filed against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), as well as Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, a Malta-based LAA station manager.
Following lengthy negotiations, Qaddafi agreed to hand over the two suspects to Scottish police in 1999 so they could stand trial in the Netherlands.
See also: Lockerbie bomber release orchestrated by Tony Blair’s gov’t in exchange for trade deals
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