Dr Jim Swire has said that the apparent death of Colonel Gadaffi in Libya will present “continuing difficulty” in reaching the truth about the destruction of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.

Swire believes Abdelbaset Al Megrahi was not responsible for the destruction of the airliner, and is concerned that UK assistance in killing Gadaffi may serve the aims of those who “are determined that there shall be continuing difficulty discovering the whole truth” of the event.

“There is a lot of information still to come out. I shall be very interested in what information becomes reliably available about the manner of his death now, whether it was a NATO strike, a special forces action or direct action by the interim council, because there are a lot of people walking about on the face of this planet who I believe are determined that there shall be continuing difficulty discovering the whole truth about why Pan Am 103 was knocked out of the sky that night in 1988,2 he told Sky News.

“There is much still to be resolved about that issue, and Gadaffi, whether he was involved or not, might have been able to clear a lot of points up about that.

“If it is true now that he is dead we may have lost an opportunity for getting closer to the truth.

“A lot of information has accrued to us since the trial of Megrahi and much of that information is vividly contrasting to what was led and accepted by the court. “