Victim's father regrets death of 'Lockerbie bomber'

The father of a British victim of the Lockerbie bombing said Sunday he regretted the death of the only man convicted of the atrocity and expressed hopes his name would be cleared posthumously.

Jim Swire, a British doctor whose daughter Flora was killed in the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, said he had long believed that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was innocent.

"It is a sad time, I think. I have been satisfied for some years that this man was nothing to do with the murder of my daughter," Swire said.

"I think Scotland has a big question to answer as to why his verdict hasn't long since been reviewed," he told BBC TV.

But British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected calls for an inquiry into the conviction.

"This has been thoroughly gone through," Cameron told British reporters at a NATO summit in Chicago. "There was a proper process, a proper court proceeding and all the rest of it."

"I'm very clear that the court case was properly done and properly dealt with.

"Today is a day to remember the 270 people who lost their lives in what was an appalling terrorist act," Cameron added.

A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted Megrahi in 2001 of the bombing which sent debris from the jet raining down on Lockerbie, killing 11 people on the ground and all 259 on board the jet.

Scottish authorities released Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2009 because he had prostate cancer, a decision which caused outrage in Britain and the United States.

Cameron said on Sunday: "I've always been clear he should never have been released".

Some have suggested the decision was taken to smooth the way for oil deals in Libya to be struck with British firms.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond argued that Megrahi's death vindicated his administration -- which can make decisions on justice matters independently of the British government.

His death "puts to rest some of the conspiracy theories which have attempted to suggest that his illness was somehow manufactured -- today's news confirms what we have always said about his medical condition", Salmond said.

Swire, a member of the Justice for Megrahi (JFM) group, said the Libyan had been in great pain when he visited him in Tripoli in December.

"I think we both knew we were saying goodbye to each other," he said. "His demise now has at least relieved his pain for him.

"From now on perhaps we can concentrate on trying to find out who did murder my daughter and all those other people."

Swire said he was confident that Megrahi's guilty verdict would be quashed.

"I think the verdict will be overturned because there is already sufficient information to make it untenable," he said.

Jean Berkley, whose son Alistair died in the attack, said a full public inquiry was still needed.

"I would say our focus has never been on Megrahi, he is part of a much larger picture," she said.

"His death does not change anything and we still want an inquiry, there are still all these unanswered questions," she added.

Megrahi dropped an appeal shortly before his release even though he was under no legal compulsion to do so.

The secretary of JFM, Robert Forrester, said Megrahi's eldest daughter Ghada, who studied law in Scotland, has often signalled her intention to push for the appeal to be reopened after her father's death.

Even if she does not do so, Forrester said Swire and other sceptical families could do so.

However, he accused the Scottish administration of obstructing efforts to shed light on the Lockerbie affair.

"The Crown and successive governments have, for years, acted to obstruct any attempts to investigate how the conviction of Mr al-Megrahi came about.

"Some in the legal and political establishments may well be breathing a sigh of relief now that Mr al-Megrahi has died. This would be a mistake."

Salmond said the Lockerbie case "remains a live investigation".

"It has always been the Crown's position that Mr Megrahi did not act alone but with others," he said.

Scotland's top prosecutor and the head of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation visited Libya in April to assess the investigation.

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