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Lockerbie police team increased

 

Lucinda Cameron
Tuesday 24 January 2012 14:27 GMT
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(Getty Images)

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The police force investigating the Lockerbie bombing has increased the number of officers involved in the inquiry.

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said the increase was in light of the regime change in Libya.

A total of 270 people were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on December 21 1988.

Abdelbaset al Megrahi is the only man convicted of the atrocity and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001.

He was released on compassionate grounds in August 2009 after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and returned to Libya.

At the time doctors estimated he had three months to live, but he is still alive.

Dumfries and Galloway officers who are investigating the bombing met Libyan defector Musa Kusa last April.

Former foreign minister Mr Kusa is believed to have been an intelligence officer at the time of the Lockerbie bombing.

Following the regime change in Libya last year, Libya's National Transitional Council told the UK Government it would co-operate with Scottish prosecutors and police investigating the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary would not comment on how many officers are now involved in the investigation, saying it was an "operational matter".

On the 23rd anniversary of the bombing last month, Scotland's most senior law officer vowed to bring the perpetrators of the atrocity to justice.

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said the idea that Megrahi acted alone was "risible", and added that he would be "failing in his duty" if he did not find the people who were responsible for the bombing.

A Crown Office spokesman said: "The transitional government of Libya has agreed to allow officers from Dumfries and Galloway police to travel to Libya for inquiries into the involvement of others with Mr Megrahi in the Lockerbie bombing, and COPFS (Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service) continues to work closely with the Scottish police and US authorities."

PA

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