Investigators of the Lockerbie bombing are reported to be questioning at least five former agents of the East German secret police about their role in Britain’s deadliest terror attack.
The former Stasi agents are suspected of having been involved in the crime.
December 21st, 1988 all 259 passengers and crew members on board the plane were killed as well as 11 people on the ground. It is the biggest terrorist attack ever to take place in Britain. At 19.02 a loud sound was recorded on the cockpit voice recorder; a bomb had gone off. The plane was at a height of approximately 31,000 feet when the bomb went off.
The explosion caused a 20-inch hole on the left side of the fuselage (main body of the plain). The nose of the plain was effectively blown straight off. The plane fell from the sky and the main part landed approximately four kilometres east of Lockerbie. The pieces of the plane were shattered and landed in an area covering roughly 850 square miles. 21 houses were burnt out and destroyed, the jet engine had detached and destroyed tarmac by the houses.
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was an intelligence officer for the African country of Libya. He was charged with planning the bombing through he was always insisted he was innocent. It took over 12 years for him to be found guilty of planning the attack and he was sentenced to life in prison in Scotland. The Libyan government accepted responsibility for the bombings and said they believed the right man was in jail. He died in May 2012.
The Crown Office, the Scottish prosecution service, has confirmed the investigation involving the Stasi was ongoing but did not detail any aspects as an insight. In Scotland a team of nine prosecutors are involved in investigating whether the East German agents were involved with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Crown Office lawyers have also been searching for new evidence in Libya.
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “As this is a live criminal investigation, it would not be appropriate to comment,”
She added: “Prosecutors and police, working with UK Government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with al-Megrahi to justice.”
As many as 20 former Stasi officers have been interviewed across Germany in connection with the case.
Alison Di Rollo, the Scottish solicitor-general, pledged in December to pursue any new evidence in the case.
She said: “Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of acting with others in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103. Today, I can give you a commitment from Scotland that if new evidence about the involvement of others with al-Megrahi in the murder of the 270 victims becomes available we will reassess the case in close co-operation with our US colleagues,”
