Evidence uncovered in Flight 103 case

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Papers prosecutors did not present to defense attorneys in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing trial could have affected its outcome, investigators said.

The papers suggesting a prosecution witness was implicated will be included as part of an official report on the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, The Scotsman said Sunday. German investigators established that a Palestinian terrorist could have planted the bomb on the Boeing 747 jetliner, the newspaper said.

The Pan Am plane exploded in mid-air over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, killing 270 people in the aircraft and on the ground. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted in 2001 and is serving a life sentence.

The commission on Sunday said it established that defense attorneys were forced to get the papers directly from German authorities just before trial, but had neither the time nor the money to translate them, The Scotsman said.

The terrorist was a witness for the prosecution, and received lifetime immunity from prosecution, the Scotsman said. Defense sources said this provided the motive for prosecutors to suppress the German evidence.