'DYNAMITE' NEW EVIDENCE MAY MEAN LOCKERBIE RETRIAL

IT was claimed last night that the co-accused of the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing could face a re-trial after “dynamite” new evidence emerged into who was behind the atrocity.

- Richard Elias

Abdelbasset al-Megrahi, above left, was found guilty of taking part in the terror attack which killed 270 people when a Pan-Am Jumbo crashed over the Dumfriesshire town in December 1988.

However, his co-defendant and fellow Libyan, Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah, above right, was acquitted.

But now, new documentation not only appears to suggest that the North African dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was actually responsible for the outrage, but also casts doubt on the innocence of the man who walked from the courtroom.

Detectives from Police Scotland are now analysing some 20 files relating to claims by the authors of a new book examining the Lockerbie case, entitled "The Murderer Who Must Be Saved".

Last night, one former FBI agent, speaking to BBC Scotland, described the material as potential "dynamite".

Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life following his conviction at a special Scottish court set up in Netherlands. He was controversially freed by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill in 2009 on compassionate grounds as he had terminal cancer.

He died three years later in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, aged 60.

However, Fhimah was found not guilty due to a lack of evidence and returned to his homeland, receiving a hero's welcome.

The book's authors claim the new evidence implicates four Libyans: Abdullah al-Senussi, Abu Agila Mas'id Kheir Al-Marimi, also known as Masud, as well as both Al-Megrahi and Fhimah.