Charles Norrie, whose brother was on board UT-772, the French flight destroyed by a bomb in 19 September 1989, has been analysing the Pan AM 103 event for 18 years. Here, he offers a personal view of the state of the case.

"Interesting is it not that the sham Court at Zeist had a spare judge to ensure that if one became ill there would be a bench that had heard all the 'evidence' and could convict, but it suddenly becomes inconvenient to have that same arrangement when the situation is reversed and Mr Megrahi could be released by appeal?

"The case against Mr Megrahi is dead and the only one now is 'what was the CIA's contribution to the destruction of the Maid'. In my view very, very serious indeed. Whether we can get any of the gents concerned before a Scottish Court its judges and prosecutors, with all their absurd titles of Lord this and Lord that (for a judiciary of a country with less than the population of London) is unlikely, but whether Mr Megrahi dies, or he is forcibly returned to Libya against the wishes of the majority of the US relatives (who have been deliberately misled over the true nature of the disaster), many of whom wished to see him swing, and at least one called for the nuking of Tripoli, the campaign for the truth about Lockerbie will continue.

"The original sad stunt (it deserves no better description than that) was of course carried out to ensure Mr Bush senior acceded to his rightful prize of the Presidency of the United States, and his attempt not holed below the waterline like the unfortunate President Carter 12 years before, and was a damage limitation exercise to allow the Iranians their revenge over the downing of their Airbus, IR 655.

"The White House was allowed by Mrs Thatcher to ride roughshod over Scottish judicial and police sensibilities and its Agency as permitted to interfere in the whole of the investigation and judicial process. The UK was chosen for the location of the destruction of Pan Am 103 as the Government owed the Americans more than a few favours over the Falklands War, and they knew the UK authorities would bend over backwards to accommodate the importunate US demands.

"The most reasonable interpretation over what has happened is that the US relatives have told the Lord Advocate in no uncertain terms they want Mr Megrahi to die in jail; the judges know in their hearts they will have to accept the appeal; and for a Lordship to pull a sickie (a strategem far more widely used from the dock) is at the moment the best way of dumping the matter back into the politicians' hands.

"It may take decades for the truth to out, well after all the players in this farce are dead, but until there is a proper account of what happened, the Scottish judicial process must be shunned and treated as a pariah, as its seems incapable of addressing its distressing failures."