Nine years after PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Scotland, relatives of those who died have launched a petition demanding that the Government does more to ensure that two Libyan suspects face a trial.

They are urging the Government to offer a trial under Scottish legal procedures, but in a neutral country. Instead of a jury there would be a panel of judges chaired by a Scot.

MP Tom Dalyell, who was at the launch of the petition, said the Lord Advocate Lord Hardie should take no role in deciding where the trial should be held.

Mr Dalyell said Lord Hardie should step aside in proceedings because he had been a crown lawyer at the "deeply unsatisfactory" fatal accident inquiry into the bombing.

The family's spokesman, Jim Swire, believes there may never be a fair trial unless the Government is more flexible about its venue.

Earlier, he told BBC News 24 that he believed Iran, not Libya, may have been behind the bomb.

He said the West may be covering up Iran's involvement for political reasons.

A bomb placed on PanAm Flight 103 killed 270 people, including 11 on the ground when the plane was brought down over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Libya and its leader Colonel Gadaffi were blamed for the attack and international sanctions were imposed on the country.

Libya's Colonel Gadaffi: has his country been made scapegoat?

The Security Council imposed aviation, arms and diplomatic sanctions on Libya in 1992 for refusing to hand over two alleged intelligence agents for trial.

But Arab and African nations have urged the council to accept a compromise offer by Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi to turn them over to a third country or international court.

The United States and Britain have rejected the offer.

A UN delegation visited Scotland and Libya earlier this month to report on the fairness of Scottish courts and the impact of sanctions on the Libyan people.

Dr Swire lost his daughter in the attack but believes the two Libyans may be innocent. He said that evidence points the finger of blame at Iran.

Dr Swire: suspicious of Western motives

"There are also extremely powerful reasons why the truth must never be allowed to come out now. The fact that the Libyans have offered trial in a neutral country under Scots law as a reasonable compromise which is rejected out of hand every time it's raised by Britain and America, I think, looks increasingly suspicious," he said.

Dr Swire said that a "senior Iranian official who defected to Germany" and a founder of the overseas Iranian intelligence service said that he knew who was responsible for the bombing of Flight 103.

According to Dr Swire, the Iranian defector said the bomb was brought to Heathrow airport in London on an Iranian aircraft and transferred it to the PanAm flight.

During the Gulf War in 1991, Iran was an ally of the West against Iraq. Dr Swire believes Libya has been made the scapegoat as a result of this alliance.

"If Libya has been framed then it also means the sanctions are totally unjust," he said.
 

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