EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 25 (UPI) -- Prosecutors withheld evidence in the trial that led to the only conviction in the 1988 Lockerbie, Scotland, bombing, a previously secret report reveals.
The full, 800-page report was published by The Sunday Herald in Glasgow, which obtained permission from Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
The report reveals the withholding of several pieces of evidence led to al-Megrahi's case being referred to appeal. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission said the trial could have had a different outcome if the evidence had been available to the defense at trial.
In the air above Lockerbie in southern Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, Flight 103 was decimated by a remotely detonated bomb that had been placed on board. The plane was blown to pieces, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members and launching sections of the plane into Lockerbie, destroying homes and bringing the total death toll to 270.
Al-Megrahi was convicted of murder, conspiracy to murder and violation of the Aviation Security Act in 2001, and had an unsuccessful appeal shortly after. He was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 because he was expected to succumb to terminal prostate cancer within three months. Al-Megrahi now lives in Tripoli.
