Lockerbie tragedy: 35th anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103
Today marks 35 years since the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 – and a series of events will take place in memory of those who died.
When the Boeing 747 exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, it killed all 259 passengers and crew on board and 11 people on the ground.
The bombing – which took place on 21 December 1988 as the plane made its way from London to New York – remains the UK’s worst terrorist attack.
A policeman standing guard over houses damaged in the bombing
The Dumfries and Galloway town will mark the 35th anniversary of the tragedy on Thursday with a series of events.
Lockerbie Academy will host its annual remembrance assembly.
A small number of pupils will then take part in a rose-laying ceremony at Dryfesdale Cemetery at 11.30am. They will be accompanied by a remembrance scholar from Syracuse University who will be representing the 35 students from Syracuse who were killed in the disaster.
Wreaths and floral tributes at Dryfesdale Cemetery on the tragedy’s 30th anniversary in 2018
A number of public events have also been organised and all those wishing to take part are warmly invited to attend.
• 10am: Communal wreath-laying and remembrance service at Tundergarth Church.
• 11.45am: Communal wreath-laying at Dryfesdale Cemetery.
• 12.15pm: Communal wreath-laying at Sherwood Crescent.
• 12.45pm: Communal wreath-laying at Rosebank Crescent.
• 7pm: Mass at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church. A service will also take place at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University and can be watched online.
Lockerbie Town Hall will be open between 10am and 8pm, where light refreshments will be available. Soup will also be served between 1pm and 2.30pm.
The Remembrance Room at Tundergarth Church and Dryfesdale Lodge Visitor Centre will remain open throughout the day, and both offer a wealth of information surrounding the disaster.
First Minister Humza Yousaf has marked the anniversary by paying tribute to all those who lost their life in the disaster.
He added: “My thoughts are also with the emergency workers who responded in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity.
“Their rapid response along with the people of Lockerbie while facing extraordinary circumstances demonstrated extreme kindness and humanity in the face of such horrific events.
“While those lost on that night can never be replaced, and the events have had a lasting impact on the town, I know links were forged following the disaster between Lockerbie and other communities that continue to this day, including the Syracuse University scholarship programme with Lockerbie Academy.
“The strength and compassion that both the victims’ families and the community of Lockerbie have shown has created a legacy of friendship and ensured that the memory of those who died lives on.”
The Stone of Remembrance within the Memorial Garden at Dryfesdale Cemetery
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Key dates in the three decades since the Lockerbie bombing:
21 December 1988: Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people – 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
Abdelbaset al Megrahi
January 2001: Following a trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al Megrahi is found guilty of mass murder and jailed for life. Co-accused Lamin Khalifah Fhimah is found not guilty.
A newsagent displaying the outcome of the Lockerbie trial
August 2003: Libya accepts blame for the bombing and agrees to compensate victims’ families.
March 2004: Then prime minister Tony Blair offers Colonel Muammar Gaddafi “the hand of friendship” following talks with the Libyan leader in a tent outside Tripoli. The UK and Libya go on to sign a memorandum of understanding, with a commitment to negotiate a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA).
Tony Blair and Muammar Gaddafi in 2004
May 2007: Oil giant BP and the Libyan government sign an exploration and production sharing agreement.
June 2007: The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) recommends Megrahi is granted a second appeal against his conviction after the first, in 2002, was refused.
December 2007: It is revealed the UK government has decided not to exclude Megrahi from the PTA.
September 2008: Megrahi is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.
Megrahi’s wife and son during a candle-lit vigil outside Holyrood in 2008
May 2009: The Libyan government submits an application to the Scottish government for Megrahi’s transfer under the PTA, followed by an application for release on compassionate grounds.
August 2009: Then Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill announces Megrahi is to be freed from Greenock Prison and returned to his home country on compassionate grounds. The UK and the US condemn the “hero’s welcome” given to Megrahi as he arrives in Tripoli to cheering crowds.
Megrahi arriving at Glasgow Airport in 2009 after being released from Greenock Prison on compassionate grounds
Megrahi leaving Glasgow for Tripoli
September 2009: Then UK justice secretary Jack Straw acknowledges the prospect of trade and oil deals with Libya was “a very big part” of his decision to include Megrahi in the PTA.
July 2011: Megrahi appears in a televised pro-government rally in Libya and says his conviction was the result of a “conspiracy”.
October 2011: Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya following an uprising, is killed by rebels.
May 2012: Megrahi dies at home in Tripoli aged 60.
December 2013: The UK, US and Libyan governments vow to cooperate to reveal “the full facts” of the bombing.
An aerial view of some of the plane wreckage recovered, which was kept in a Lincolnshire salvage yard
June 2014: Six members of Megrahi’s family join forces with 24 British relatives of those who died in the atrocity to seek another appeal against his conviction in the Scottish courts.
December 2014: Scotland’s then top prosecutor, lord advocate Frank Mulholland, reaffirms Megrahi’s guilt and pledges to track down his accomplices.
July 2015: Scottish judges rule relatives of the victims of the bombing should not be allowed to pursue an appeal on Megrahi’s behalf.
October 2015: Scottish prosecutors announce they want two Libyans they have identified as suspects to be interviewed by police.
July 2017: Megrahi’s family lodges a new bid to appeal against his conviction, five years after his death.
May 2018: The SCCRC says a full review of Megrahi’s case will be carried out to decide whether a fresh appeal against conviction can be made.
November 2018: A police investigation finds no evidence of criminality in relation to the handling of the Lockerbie investigation and prosecution.
March 2019: It’s revealed the Crown Office questioned retired Stasi agents over the bombing, examining the possible role of the East German intelligence service in the tragedy.
March 2020: The SCCRC rules a fresh appeal is to be allowed, and refers the case to the High Court of Justiciary.
June 2020: The appeal against the conviction of Megrahi is formally lodged at the High Court.
November 2020: A crowdfunder is launched to help pay for the appeal. It then begins at the High Court in Edinburgh, sitting as the Court of Appeal, and lasts three days.
December 2020: The US charges a “third conspirator” in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, on the 32nd anniversary of the atrocity.
January 2021: Judges reject both grounds of appeal, meaning Megrahi’s conviction stands.
December 2022: Third suspect – Libyan Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al Marimi – is taken into US custody and appears at Washington DC federal courthouse accused of being the bombmaker.
Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir al Marimi. Pic: Alexandria Sheriff’s Office.
December 2023: Marimi remains in US custody awaiting trial.
A new Sky documentary tells the story of Britain’s deadliest terrorist atrocity.
Lockerbie is available to watch on Sky Documentaries and Now.
UK
Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still ‘too high’ under Labour – but says Farage can ‘sod off’
The home secretary has admitted the UK’s illegal immigrant numbers are “too high” – but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.
Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase of irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Politics latest: Labour MPs attack asylum plans
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.
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Beth Rigby: The two big problems with Labour’s asylum plan
Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
• The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
• Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
• Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
• Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
• Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
• Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
• And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.
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Home secretary announces details on asylum reform
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.
The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: “Nigel Farage can sod off. I’m not interested in anything he’s got to say.
“He’s making mischief. So I’m not going to let him live forever in my head.”
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Nigel Farage said the home secretary was sounding like a Reform supporter
She earlier announced refugee status would be temporary, only lasting two and a half years before a review, and they would have to be in the UK for 20 years before getting permanent settled status, instead of the current five years.
Ms Mahmood said Reform wanted to “rip up” indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called “immoral” and “deeply shameful”.
The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to her Pakistani parents.
Earlier, in the House of Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racial slurs.
BBC chair Samir Shah has said there is “no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this” – after Donald Trump said he would sue the corporation for between $1bn and $5bn.
It comes after the US president confirmed on Saturday he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster over the editing of his speech on Panorama – despite an apology from the BBC.
Samir Shah said the BBC’s position ‘has not changed’. Pic: Reuters
In an email to staff, Mr Shah said: “There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.
“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.
“I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”
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On Saturday, President Trump told reporters legal action would come in the following days.
“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he said.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
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The BBC on Thursday said the edit of Mr Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
The broadcaster apologised and said the splicing of the speech was an “error of judgment” but refused to pay financial compensation after the US leader’s lawyers threatened to sue for one billion dollars in damages unless a retraction and apology were published.
Deborah Turness. Pic: Reuters
Tim Davie. Pic: PA
The Panorama scandal prompted the resignations of two of the BBC’s most senior executives – director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
The broadcaster has said it will not air the Panorama episode Trump: A Second Chance? again, and published a retraction on the show’s webpage on Thursday.
A British man who hacked the X accounts of celebrities in a bid to con people out of Bitcoin, has been ordered to repay £4.1m-worth of the cryptocurrency, prosecutors say.
Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was jailed in the United States for five years in 2023 after he pleaded guilty to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion.
He was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited after the country’s high court ruled the US was best placed to prosecute because the evidence and victims were there.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Monday it had obtained a civil recovery order to seize 42 Bitcoin and other crypto assets linked to the scam, in which O’Connor used hijacked accounts to solicit digital currency and threaten celebrities.
The July 2020 hack compromised accounts of high-profile figures including former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole more than $794,000 (£629,000) of cryptocurrency after using the hacked accounts to ask people to send $1,000 in Bitcoin to receive double back.
Prosecutor Adrian Foster said the civil recovery order showed that “even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality”.
The order, which valued O’Connor’s assets at around £4.1m, was made last week, following a freeze placed on the hacker’s property, which prosecutors secured during extradition proceedings.
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A court-appointed trustee will liquidate his assets, the CPS said.
The attack also compromised the X (then Twitter) accounts of other high-profile figures including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, investor Warren Buffett, and media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.
The hack prompted the social media platform to temporarily freeze some accounts.
X said 130 accounts were targeted, with 45 used to send tweets.
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