Lockerbie bombing: will two new suspects face prosecution?

Prosecutors in Scotland are seeking to interview two Libyan men they suspect were involved in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, which left 270 people dead.

The two new suspects – understood to be Mohammed Abouajela Masud and Abdullah al-Senussi – are believed to have acted alongside Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person every convicted of the attack.

What happened in Lockerbie?

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On 21 December 1988, Pan Am flight 103 blew up in the sky over Lockerbie, in south-western Scotland, after a bomb concealed in a suitcase exploded, resulting in the deaths of all 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. The flight had been on its way from London to New York. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, head of security with Libyan Arab Airlines, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in January 2001. His conviction was based on the theory that Libyan ruler Colonel Gaddafi personally ordered the terrorist attack in retaliation for the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in which his daughter was killed. In August 2009, Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government and died in Libya three years later.

Was Megrahi really to blame?

Megrahi protested his innocence until his death and others have claimed he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice, including many of the victims' families who believe the truth has been withheld. Although Gaddafi admitted responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in 2003, his son Saif al-Islam has repeatedly said that the admission was merely a political move to persuade the West to lift crippling sanctions and pave the way for lucrative oil deals. Gaddafi was overthrown from office and killed in 2011, after more than 40 years of dictatorial rule.

Who are Masud and Senussi?

Both Masud and Senussi are already in Libyan prisons. Senussi was formerly Gaddafi's brother-in-law and intelligence chief. He is on death row for crimes committed while working for the Gaddafi regime, during which time he was known as "the butcher" because of his reputation for brutal behaviour. Masud is serving time following convictions for bomb-making. Last month, a US television documentary claimed that Masud was part of a group that carried out a bomb attack in 1986 on a nightclub in Berlin.

Will they face prosecution?

The Lord Advocate for Scotland and the US Attorney General want Scottish police officers and the FBI to interview the two suspects in Tripoli, although their identities are yet to be publicly confirmed. The Times suggests that the current power struggle in Libya is likely to hinder legal proceedings, although some say that, since Senussi faces the death penalty in Libya, the prospect of a foreign trial may make him more willing to talk. Frank Duggan, president of Pan Am 103 Relatives, is not confident that there will be further prosecutions. "It's too long, people are dead, stories have been forgotten," he told the BBC. "I'd like to think that it will be one small measure of closure but I don't expect the kind of justice that we all hope for."