Focus on Lockerbie victims - PM (From This Is Local London)

Focus on Lockerbie victims - PM

4:34pm Sunday 20th May 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the victims of the Lockerbie bombing should be remembered following the death of the only man ever convicted of the atrocity.

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of a US airliner over the Scottish town which claimed 270 lives.

He was later diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and died in Libya - two years and nine months after his controversial release from jail on compassionate grounds.

Mr Cameron said: "I've always been clear he should never have been released from prison. Today is a day to remember the 270 people who lost their lives in what was an appalling terrorist act.Our thoughts should be with them and their families for the suffering they've had."

The Prime Minister dismissed calls for an inquiry into Megrahi's conviction which the Libyan always contested. "This has been thoroughly gone through," he said.

"There was a proper process, a proper court proceeding and all the rest of it. We have to give people the chance to mourn those that were lost. I'm very clear that the court case was properly done and properly dealt with."

First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Our first thoughts are with the families of the Lockerbie atrocity, whose pain and suffering has been ongoing now for over 23 years. Today's news was not unexpected - Mr Megrahi was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, which was the basis on which he was released.

"His death does, however, put 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.

"The Lockerbie case remains a live investigation, and Scotland's criminal justice authorities have made clear that they will rigorously pursue any new lines of inquiry. Scotland's senior law officer the Lord Advocate recently visited Libya, and we have been offered the co-operation of the new Libyan authorities. It has always been the Crown's position that Mr Megrahi did not act alone but with others."