![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/75000/images/_77710_gaddafi.jpg)
![image: [ 270 people died in the Lockerbie disaster ]](/olmedia/75000/images/_77710_lockerbie.jpg)
Dr Jim Swire hopes to discuss the deadlock over where to hold the trial of the two Libyans suspected of bombing the plane nearly 10 years ago.
His daughter Flora was among 270 people killed when a bomb blew up Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in December 1988.
He will be joined by Robert Black, a professor of Scottish law at Edinburgh University, who has proposed the two Libyans should be tried in a neutral country under Scottish law.
The Arab League is trying to find a compromise solution to the problem of where the trial should be held.
But the British Government is adamant the two suspects, Abdel Basset Ali Al Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, stand trial either in Scotland or the United States.
Dr Swire said: "We will go out there to see if there is any way forward as far as achieving a fair criminal trial is concerned.
"The Arab League have been looking for a solution which meets the needs of the accused, Britain and America, for as long as we have, and they have agreed, like Libya has agreed, that a neutral country trial under Scots law is acceptable."
'A lot of money would be paid to relatives'
Dr Swire said the visit was "extra urgent" because the chances of a criminal trial could be jeopardised by the families of some American victims who are considering suing for civil damages against Libya.
"This is very serious, as we have a rising tide towards a civil case in America which would almost certainly mean a lot of money would be paid to out to relatives, but it would also mean that justice would not be done nor would be seen to be done," he said.
A civil action could see million of pounds from frozen Libyan assets paid out to relatives, including British families.
It would rely on the release of evidence compiled against the two Libyans by British and American investigators.
Dr Swire said he had received a letter from the American lawyers who represented the families in their court case against Pan Am, informing him the British relatives could also claim damages.
Last year the Crown Office refused a request from two American relatives, Bert Ammerman and Joe Horgan, to publish the evidence built up against the two suspects.
Dr Swire said he would be writing to the Lord Advocate to make sure this position has not changed.
He fears the publication of the evidence would make Libya's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi less likely to release the two suspects for trial.
Dr Swire, who met Foreign Secretary Robin Cook last week, said: "We undoubtedly got it through to him that the absence of truth and justice is adding to the suffering to which the whole group are exposed."
Libya has long been accused of planting the Lockerbie bomb in revenge for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986.
But some relatives and Middle East experts suspect Syria or Iran was to blame.
One argument is that Iran, angry over the mistaken shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes five months earlier, commissioned a Syrian-based group to carry out the bombing.
Gaddafi hails Libya Lockerbie "victory" at UN
(22 Mar 98 | World)
Libya demands end to Lockerbie sanctions
(02 Mar 98 | World)
Lift sanctions on Libya, OIC tells UN
(01 Mar 98 | World)
Libyan foreign minister, Arab League in Lockernie coordination
(01 Mar 98 | World)
World Court claims authority in Lockerbie dispute
(27 Feb 98 | World)
Stay away, Lockerbie families tell politicians
(04 Feb 98 | UK)
Pan Am Flight 103
Information on Libya
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Lockerbie bombing: UK Air Accidents Investigations Branch
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