MaltaMedia.com

British newpapers are reporting that detectives have relaunched the investigation into the Lockerbie bombing and are pursuing several new lines of inquiry including a fresh analysis of forensic evidence.

The Sunday Telegraph has reported that authorities secretly ordered the re-examination of all evidence following the decision by Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to drop his appeal against his conviction for mass murder.

The disclosure comes as the relatives of British victims of the terrorist attack launch a campaign backed by The Sunday Telegraph for an independent public inquiry into who ordered and carried out the bombing. The UK papers said the renewal of the investigation in to the Lockerbie case is now possible because Mr al-Megrahi had dropped his appeal.

The Sunday Telegraph has reported that families sent a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanding the British Government holds an inquiry into the bombing, in which 270 people were murdered, following the death of Megrahi, the only man ever convicted of the atrocity.

Meanwhile, in Malta, The Sunday Times has reported that the UN monitor of the Lockerbie trial is demanding that Maltese authorities should question Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci who was the main witness and whose evidence led to Mr al-Megrahi’s conviction since it seems he was paid over $2 million for his cooperation. His brother Paul is alleged to have been paid a further $1 million. The claims were made in documents which Mr al-Megrahi had intended to use for his appeal, before he was transferred to Libya.

Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways’ third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21st December 1988, the aircraft flying this route was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270.

In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted of involvement in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 20th August 2009, the Scottish Government released him on compassionate grounds to return to Libya as he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer and had a life expectancy of less than 3 months.